Brentwood School - Brentwoodian 2020

78 The Trinity term kicked off with Weald Week, bringing with it another range of ‘never been seen before’ House events. There were two particular highlights for South. Charlie Stanbrook was awarded joint 1st place in the ‘Commentary Challenge’, whilst the ‘South Male’ team won the ‘Great Big Weald Lockdown Quiz’, scoring an incredible 34 out of 35 points. As the year drew towards an end, the School held its first ever Virtual Sports Day. The PE department set a range of challenges and these were added to by a number of events set up by each House. The South House events were the ‘Fast Feet Challenge’ (testing football dribbling skills for one minute), a ‘Chopstick Challenge’ (how many sweetcorn can pupils get into a bowl using chopsticks in one minute) and the ‘Plank Challenge’ (holding in the plank position for as long as possible). Max Baker, Callum Balsom and Sofia Toth excelled at ‘Fast Feet’, whilst in the ‘Chopstick Challenge’, Isabelle Toms narrowly defeated her sister, Olivia, by 62 to 61. Over 30 South pupils attempted the ‘Plank Challenge’, with Diya Dhesi (2m44s), Lauren Burgin (2m37s) and Thibaud Mathieson (2m31s) achieving great times. In the ‘PE Department Challenges’, Aaron Samuel won the ‘Running Challenge’, whilst Callum Balsom, Amelia Blee and Ellie Williams all scored over 150 in the ‘Mountain Climbers Challenge’. Gabriel Austin achieved an impressive 111 in the football ‘Keepy-Uppies Challenge’. The way in which pupils throughout the School engaged in the day was incredible, and South pupils alone took part in 622 events. A huge well done to everyone who took part - an amazing effort. Overall, we finished in 3rd place. Individually, I would like to congratulate those who completed the most challenges: Amelia Blee - 16 Sofia Toth - 14 Kourosh Khorshid - 12 Scarlett Johnson - 11 Giles Goodson - 11 Erin Shore - 11 Ethan Roos - 10 Tabitha-Bea Mathieson - 10 So, a strange year, but one that once again showed the huge enthusiasm and commitment of the vast majority of South House pupils. I would also like to thank and congratulate the House Captains and Vice-Captains for their leadership and encouragement: Tom Ridgwell, Lucy Twyford, Grace Parrish, Ryan Fedi, Tom Adams, Ellie Gelber, Harrison O’Shea, Megan Buntrock and Matz Kiernan. They all made a fantastic contribution to the House during their time at the School and I wish them and all other leavers the best of luck in the future. I would also like to thank Mrs Davis and Mrs Ebden for their outstanding support of the pupils in their roles as Assistant Heads of House. This year has begun with Virtual House Music. Jess Mills reports: House Music, despite taking place in a different manner than usual was possibly the biggest success we have had in the event for several years. South House well-deservedly achieved joint Second Place, with 93 points overall. This is a fantastic achievement for South, and has set us up well for the coming year of House events. But what many of you haven’t seen is the hard work and effort that was put in behind the scenes to achieve such a fantastic evening. Poppy Skingle, who ran Part-Song this year put in a great effort to receive videos from people over multiple year groups. Poppy and the students who took part had to strictly follow the backing track, rhythm, melody and dynamics of the song And So It Goes as best they could to achieve what would have been much easier if Part-Song could rehearse in person. So, it goes without a doubt that performing the music itself is a great achievement, and then performing it in tune and well is an even greater accomplishment. This hard work and dedication gave us joint 5th Place for the Part-Song section, scoring 35 out of the possible 40 points available.