|
|
 |
No.4 Girls' House
Anne Sharpe, together with her husband Tom, are now in their fourth year at House No.4. Anne teaches English and Drama at Malvern. Together with their four children Hugo, Constance, Ralph and Guy, they aim to establish a friendly family atmosphere in No.4. Girls are encouraged to develop their skills on the sporting, drama and musical front and working together as team is very much part of the ethos of the house. With its reputation for brightly painted walls, its legendary bright red dining room and its cosy sofas, No.4 is a comfortable place to board and a home within the College for the girls under Anne’s care.
Oct 7, 2003, 16:54
Lent term news
The Lent term is always a short one and a lot of important events need to be fitted in. Both the Junior and the Senior Ledder races are later this term. The eight mile senior race is the most challenging sports event of the year and it is traditional for girls in No.4 in the Lower Sixth to all have a go at attempting it. Training commenced as soon as the girls returned and we are looking forward to some impressive times from the girls. The time to beat is one hour and twelve seconds, set by Katie Sloane (No.4) who broke the record that had been standing for twelve years when she ran the Ledder in 2006.
No.4 has been in two finals this term already and both of them were against No.2! There was the thrilling Hart General Knowledge quiz final against No.2 held in the Lewis Room. Mrs Lafferty had put together a tough selection of questions and the two houses were very close all the way through. No.2 established an early lead of a couple of points and maintained this lead until the end. A mere three points separated the teams as we entered the final picture round, and the whole of No.4 were willing the team on to win. No.2 kept their nerve and scored top marks in this final round but it was an exciting competition and we will try to win the cup back next year. Well done to the No.4 team of Jocelyn Spottiswoode, Ellie Micklethwait, Nina Price and Bryony Logan.
Our chance for revenge against No.2 came sooner than we thought with the senior house debabting final against No.2, this time held in the impressive sixth form room of the tower in Big School. Ellie Micklethwait and Jocelyn Spottiswoode had to oppose the motion that "This House would oppose giving private schools charitable status." There was a good audience to support them and it was a very close decision when the Judges came to decide the winners. No.2 once more were the victorious side and they are to be congratulated for defending this controversial motion in front of audience including the Bursar!
This week is house play week and No.4 has the honour of having the last slot for the house play festival. Rehearsals have gone extremely smoothly with Jocelyn Spottiswoode and Alice Badham directing a large cast with sensitivity and skill. The play they decided upon is 'Daisy Pulls It Off' and they edited and cut down the script so that they have a well paced twenty-five minute production. Main parts were given to Lottie Rugreoni (Daisy), Emma Hicks (her best friend) , Hattie Dembrey (the form teacher), Joanna Smith (the Headmistress), Tori Barley (the Head Girl), with Danielle Close and Natasha Chamberlain as the rich spoilt girls. The hockey scene with its fast inter-linking lines was the hardest to rehearse and the girls had to resort to rehearsing the sequence over lunch one day to make it as slick as they could. Best accent must go to Louisa Cromie, who with her lilting Irish accent is excellent as the best friend of the Head Girl.
Despite being busy rehearsing for the house play, Lottie Rugeroni and Harriet Sale were selected to sing a duet in Chapel this morning. It was a first class performance and we look forward to hearing a lot more in the future from these talented singers.
Feb 4, 2008, 05:36
Autumn Term Update
With the weather still gloriously hot and sunny, the new girls started in No.4 on the 2nd September. We welcomed ten girls into the FY, three girls into the pre-IB and seven girls into the Lower Sixth. They have brought with them a variety of skills with one girl in the coaching team for the GB Olympic squad for pistol training. They have also brought a variety of languages too with Spanish, Italian, German and even some Welsh featuring!
The FY quickly settled into life at No.4 and were keen to get involved in all of the house sporting and singing activities. Many of them played in the opening hockey match of the season against Wrekin College where they won their first match as a team. They have since followed this up with more wins against other schools such as The King's School, Worcester and look set to be a strong team in future years. Indeed, the FY have been showing excellent house spirit and were full of enthusiasm in the recent Ferrets cross country race. Flora Paterson came in first for No.4 with an impressive time of 16.01, with Poppy Donaldson close behind with 16.36 and then Ella Cripwell with 16.42. With their 5th, 7th and 8th positions in the race, they ensured that we came second which was a wonderful result for the house. All of the year ran very well and are to be congratulated on their excellent house spirit.
This weekend sees two important events in the calendar of the boarding house. On Saturday, 6th October, the Lower School is preparing for their autumn ball. The sixth form council have decorated the Rogers Theatre with big loops that will have screens projecting moving images onto them. Dresses have been brought back after leave-out specially for the black tie event and there has already been a lot of trying on of shoes and dresses in anticipation of the ball. On Sunday, the house will be competing in the inter-house singing competition held each year in the Forum Theatres. This year, our song is 'I'd like to teach the world to sing' which has been arranged and conducted by Ellie Micklethwait and Jane Brierly. They auditioned most of the house and seventeen girls are taking part.
Although we are only in the fifth week of the term, already pupils have achieved outstanding results in several areas. Caroline Varga is through to the final of a debating competition and Louisa Cromie is supporting her. They will be debating whether zero size models should be allowed on catwalks. Another debating star is Ellie Micklethwait who went to London last week to compete against St Pauls and Westminster. Trials were held recently at MSJ to select the Worcestershire County Lacrosse teams and we are delighted that Jane Brierly and Hannah Jefferson have been selected for the U19A teams and Daphne Li for the U19B team. In the U15s, Sarah Jefferson and Caroline Varga were selected for the A team and Alice Makin and Portia Velarde for the B team. They will be playing against Gloucestershire County and then later in the term they will all play the Midlands Counties in a tournament at St Helens and St Katherines, Abingdon. A particularly remarkable achievement has been Sarah Jefferson's selection to try out for the U16 West Midlands Regional netball team, even though she is a year below the selection age.
On Thursday, No.4 entered into the poetry challenge for National Poetry Day by having a chocolate poetry trail around the boarding house with girls finding Shakespeare's sonnets on every floor of the house. During lunch poems were scattered on each dining table and there was a lively discussion as to the merits of each poem. The chocolate theme has continued with the gift to the house of a much admired chocolate fountain by Harriet Simmons' Grandmother for house events. It was put to good use the first weekend when the house council, led by our Head of House, Laura Sale entertained the FY and organised a social evening of fun, games and chocolate for them. An incredible amount of chocolate was consumed and several games were played such as murder in the dark which all enjoyed although several felt a little sick afterwards! Other year groups have been doing social things in the house too with a wine and pizza evening held for the Lower Sixth. The whole house had the opportunity to watch the premiere of 'High School Musical Two' in the common room and were served their supper of pizza and chips by Miss Coffey and Mrs Sharp so that not a single 'cheesy moment' was missed.
Mrs Sharp
Oct 8, 2007, 06:43
|
|
|
|
