introduction - blundell's school · introduction the spring term has ... of the house has...

SPRING TERM 2016 OH MAGPIE

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Introduction The spring term has been an action packed term

with various events including the notorious

Russell, the Old House play and Chapel Service.

The sixth-form and year 11 lads have just started

to really kick into exam mode with many

prepared for a long Easter of revision. The rest

of the house has enjoyed a jam-packed term with

a huge amount of musical, sporting and other extra-

curricular activities.

The senior leadership team have added Jono Slee to their ranks to coordinate the many events the

House takes on and the general day to day running of OH.

Year 9 As the second term in OH began for the Yr 9’s, we were hoping it would be just as good as the last.

With the impending Russell, House hockey and Debating ahead, all the boys were hoping for

success. Having fully settled into life in House, we were all looking to go the extra mile to really

show our full potential and keep up the OH tradition of success across all activities!

Sport has dominated the term; the continued success of OH in The Russell was celebrated by us all,

having now won it eight times in a row (much to Mr Olive’s

delight!) Following on from FH’s defeat in the house rugby

last term, we all knew they were out to beat us. The knee deep

mud didn’t stop the Yr 9’s from storming into some top 20

positions with Jack Swain gliding over the finish line as the

first in the year group. Hot on his muddy heels were Jack

Winzer, Jack Burnand, Lucas Jones, Will Grubb and George

McIntyre, all contributing towards the overall point’s cup. The

Juniors won the cup by a good distance, helped by some

determined performances from the Yr 9 runners.

The hockey season also arrived in January with much

competition for places in the A team. OH Yr 9’s managed to

get six people into the A team: Ben Gresswell, George

McIntyre, George Gibbs, Will Grubb, Dan Stagg and Jack

Burnand which is a great achievement. The B team was

The 2015/16 OH Monitors


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equally well represented by OH lads with James Hutton,

Lucas Jones, Jack Swain, Jack Winzer and Tom

Greenfield with Jack Winzer also supporting the A’s. Will

Grubb was a great Midfielder player alongside Jack

Burnand, who has scored many goals this season in his

Right-Mid position. It has been a good season for the

U14‘s, with the A’s just missing out on progression to the

West Finals.

We have had many individual endeavours this term

including Ben Gresswell being awarded his half-colours

for being in the House Play (although his obvious

skills at portraying a woman were a little alarming!)

George Gibbs participated in the House Debating

and although they did not take the trophy, both of

them spoke very well. Paco Chow and Boon

Pumapanich visited the Exmouth Lifeboats and

Dmity Vladimirskiy quickly developed some

impressive fencing skills with both foil and epee.

The OH common room has also witnessed some

other activities this term with OH challenging other

houses to Skittles matches which have been

entertaining!

George McIntyre

Year 10 The OH year 10s have yet again excelled in many activities this Term. The Junior Russell was very

much dominated by OH all the way through the legendary race. In the end OH yet again won the

Junior Cup with Zac Campbell-Breeden finishing 1st (he has done so in every race that’s has taken

place this term) and Liam Syed 2nd. Many other OH lads finished in the top 20 putting a lot of effort

and dedication in to bring back the cup to the shelf in the Common Room. The year 10s are now

looking forward to taking on the challenge of next year’s Senior race.

Luke Simpson has continued to show off his rugby skills and has made

appearances for Devon multiple times this term and played for the

Exeter Chief’s Academy. He has also participated in House Debating

with a fellow year 9. Rory Bateman and Will Spencer have persevered

with the Ten Tors challenge and have been going on many hard walks

on Dartmoor and are hoping to get selected for the final walk in May.

Rory has also been completing an RYA Day Skipper sailing

qualification with the exam next term. We participated in hockey

house matches with Aran Dagwell captaining the Junior team. The

house football also took place being captained by year 11 Will McIntyre.

10JO’s Tutor group held an Easter cake sale raising a deliciously

brilliant £117.83 for the RNLI.

Liam Syed


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Year 11

This term has been exciting and challenging for Year 11. With the vast

amount of extra-curricular activities it is always difficult to balance

this with coursework and preparation for GCSEs next term. However,

Year 11 has been very successful with competition in lots of sporting

and cultural events. In the sporting field, we have lads playing for the

school in nearly all the sports available this term. This ranges from

Hockey to Canoeing. In the House matches we had some success by

coming second in the House football.

In the Russell we had a good year with everyone contributing and helping the House to its 8th win

in a row. We had a strong contribution from Will McIntyre who consistently came in the top twelve

throughout the practices and the full race. In drama the Year was well represented with four getting

parts in the very successful House play. Also, Will McIntyre competed in the ESU public speaking

regional finals where he was very successful and unfortunate not to reach the national finals.

Another key part of life in OH is supporting charities. Jamie Hayes-Pankhurst and Harry Olive in

particular have helped gather funding for the Borneo trip in 2017 – thanks for the cakes!

Hal Dare


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Year 12

The spring term was a tough 12 weeks for the year 12’s, with a number of

activities and events taking place, as well as mocks first week back then

final lessons leading up to next terms AS exams. House debating saw

Archie Fraser and Freddie Carew take on NC, the lads were placed 3rd

overall, which was particularly impressive given that they had to propose

forced euthanasia at 90. The OH play, led by Ed Blackmore and James

Holden, was a huge success and left everyone laughing (a key role played

by Thomas Tang). Christian Cabburn and Ed Blackmore travelled to

Burnham to represent Blundell’s in the highly challenging Golf

tournament.

This term has seen many OH lads receive full colours. These include: Jack Lockwood, Ed Blackmore, Freddie Carew, and Hugh Hamilton-Green (who also received school half colours). Jono Slee became the latest

addition to the monitor squad, after a very successful first term in OH. Jack Lockwood and Hugh Hamilton Green were two of the three lower sixth students to go to Rosslyn Park and represent Blundell’s in the largest school boy tournament in the world. The Russell was a great success for OH, with the year 12’s performing to their best efforts, with Ben Simpson stepping up at late notice in place of the injured Ed Blackmore. Tim Jones began walking again after a serious leg brake at the end of last term! Julius Rachlitz has played in many of the orchestral concerts Blundell’s has taken part in and Alfred Tse was part of the Choir Tour to Vienna and sang as part of the Chamber Music Concert at St George’s, Bristol. Thank you from all the year twelve lads.

Tim Jones

The House Play Old House this year performed a production of Speed Date by Janet

Allard. This production was as it says OH’S take on speed dating, with a

slight Take Me Out influence with Will McIntyre taking on the role of a

rather different Paddy McGuinness. Boys acting as women was always

going to provide laughs but with star roles from the likes of Freddie

Carew, Jack Lockwood and Gus Gresswell the cast had the auditorium in


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stiches. Who couldn’t forget Thomas

Tang, although he only had 4 words, he

took them and made them his, this

proved to be the funniest part of the

production this year. I cannot take credit

for this genius idea, I have to give it to my

Co-director James Holden who helped

me massively this year. The cast were a

pleasure to direct, I would like to say a

massive thank you to everyone involved.

My last thanks have to go to Mr. and Mrs.

Olive who helped and given guidance

where ever they could.

Ed Blackmore


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The Russell

It is only once a year that the strength of OH’s House motto: No Passengers, is truly put to the test.

Every March ‘The Russell’ inevitably comes back around and, for perpetual champions OH, the

senses begin to heighten early in the Spring Term. The battle lines were drawn after the first

‘practice’ race, in which FH somehow scraped an early advantage. However, the mighty OH clawed

back valuable points in the next two ‘practices’ so that we held onto a slender (0.02 points) lead to

maintain our winning streak in the Cumulative Points Cup which now extends to 8 years. The

margin of victory was miniscule; the bragging rights over FH and Petergate (at least they showed

up) were invaluable.

Individual highlights include a scarily dominant display from Zac Campbell-Breeden who won not

one, not two, not three, but four out of four races this year – beating last year’s winner by a whole

minute! Additionally, we had more strong performances in the junior races by Liam Syed (second)

and Will Spencer (third). In the older years, first back from OH was Will McIntyre, closely followed

by Julius Rachlitz and Oscar Kolowski. For all three of them this was their first experience of the

legend that is ‘Heart-break Hill’, which claimed fresh victims this year, leaving a sick taste in the

mouth of those who had the audacity to think they could conquer it and emerge unscathed.

Overall, everyone who ran both the ‘practices’ or the actual event must be congratulated for

contributing to what was yet another year of OH dominance in ‘The Russell’.

Will McIntyre


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House Football

With excellent team selection by Jono ‘Hodgson’

despite the limited football talent OH has to offer

we went in feeling confident that our performance

would be solid. First we faced Petergate who were

the underdogs of the tournament but gave us a

scare as the score remained 1-1 up until the dying

seconds of the game when 3rd team striker Archie

Fraser, aka Nando Torres, scored a headed goal

from a cross whipped in by Alexis Lomas.

Then the real challenge came. We had to beat an

exceptionally strong FH side who had just beaten

Petergate 5-0. Throughout the game we

dominated and had multiple opportunities but in English fashion we were unable to finish them

off. The match ended 0-0 and FH won on goal difference. Credit must go to the whole team as that

was a game we deserved to win, particularly James ‘Buffon’ who kept out many shots in both

matches even though it was his first time in goal.

Archie Fraser

House Hockey

After winning house rugby, tug of war and the Russell, house hockey was next on the list for Old

House. We went into it feeling very negative as our team was not quite as strong as we would have

hoped, with only two 1st team players. The likes of Francis House and Petergate had at least 5 1st

team players, and as we thought they proved tough

competition. Our first match was against Francis

House, they got an early goal. However, with the

mighty defence of Hal Dare, Mack Butterfield,

Oscar Kolowski and Ben Simpson and with Hugh

(HOH) Green in goal we brushed off numerous

attacks from FH. With only 5 minutes left, we were

looking down and out but somehow Jack

Lockwood got a marvelous through ball and he

slotted the ball to draw the game at the final

whistle.

Petergate were next in our sights, and we were

incredibly positive after beating an all-star FH

team. However we conceded 2 goals in quick

succession, we had numerous attacks with good

runs and counter attacks from Eddie Gardener,

Dan Hoaen and Ed Blackmore. Jack Lockwood had

a few chances to make himself hero of the day

however he couldn't seem to capitalize. After the


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third goal went in with 1 minute left we realized it was not going to be our year. Overall I was very

happy with the team’s performance. Big thanks to everyone for all their efforts, especially Ben

Simpson our own ‘super sub’.

Ed Blackmore

Inter-house Debating

Senior

Freddie Carew and Archie Fraser undertook the task of doing the Senior Inter-House Debating.

They were given the impossible motion of “This house believes that euthanasia should be

mandatory at the age of 90.” Despite the horrendous topic, OH still managed to receive 4 votes for

the motion to NC’s 20 against. Overall OH came 3rd which was better than usual, only losing by 3

points (81/100) to NC (84/100).

Archie Fraser

Junior

Old House also competed strongly at the house debating this year with Luke Simpson and George

Gibbs acting as the opposition for the motion “students should be encouraged to use mobile devices

in class”. Petergate spoke first and strong points of information were offered by both Luke and

George. Luke opened the speaking against the strong opposition of Petergate arguing that Phones

are a strong source of procrastination. George followed speaking strongly about how mobile devices

in school can contribute to bullying allowing little room for Petergate to give any points of

information. George also closed the debate exceptionally well using the analogy of an egg to

describe how we should go about using mobile devices in the learning environment. OH were

unlucky to come away with a narrow loss in the debate but both competitors can be proud of their

efforts.

Luke Simpson

Rugby success

Through this term we have had a few boys from OH

representing both the County and Exeter Chiefs for rugby.

Early in the Term Hal Dare and Oscar Kolowski (year 11)

both made appearances for Devon. Oscar at fullback earned

himself a man of the match by scoring a superb hat-trick. In

year 10 Luke Simpson started his First season playing for

Devon and has been playing inside centre for games against

Somerset and Bristol schools and has won 2 out of 2 games

so far. He also played his first game for the Exeter Chiefs’

u15 Academy side against Worcester. In interview exclusive

to the Magpie after the game he said “it was a wonderful

experience to play on the Hallowed Turf of Tiverton Rugby


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club and it was amazing to see so many people filling the stands tonight”.

Luke Simpson

PS4 and Fifa

At the beginning of this term, OH experienced the return of FIFA thanks to the introduction of the

PS4. Inevitably, it was used 24/7 and still is up to this point. The PS4 has changed the dynamics of

the house and has brought the year groups closer together.

The OH FIFA World Cup began but has only reached the quarter finals with the winner to be

crowned next term.

Archie Fraser


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Skittles

Exciting, enthralling, and euphoric. A ‘normal’

Wednesday in Old House is now a thing of the past, with

the introduction of the highly competitive inter-house

sport of not rugby, not hockey, but skittles. Compared to

most Blundell’s sports, skittles is not merely affected if

you ‘skip leg day’, instead demands technique and class.

An innovative idea from OH’s senior squad, skittles

brings a new competitive edge to a typical Wednesday,

as other houses attempt to try and defeat OH’s skittle

eggheads. In the words of Jeremy Vine,” will they ever

be beaten”? Beginning with the OH Westlake leavers, no,

was the answer. However, a gruelling FH match proved tense, but surprisingly led to a draw.

Shockingly, the following week the variation in members of the squad led to a defeat against

Petergate, but as we reflected in our post match analysis, at least Petergate won something this

year. NC proved stiff competition for the lads/bois, but OH once again came out on top. We ended

what was our last competitive game of the season with a dogged performance against GH with Liam

Syed putting in another scintillating performance and we’d like to take the opportunity to say a few

words about Liam Syed. Lol we’re joking. Hopefully we will be having one more friendly against the

Common Room when we return in the summer. Will they be able to crack the egg-heads?

Jack Lockwood.


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Housemaster report

A busy Spring term draws to a close with another fantastic spread of achievements for the OH lads.

The term started almost straight away with a visit to the

Exmouth Lifeboat Station in preparation for a brilliant sea

themed House Chapel Service focusing on the RNLI. The

visit allowed us to present a cheque to the Coxswain of the

Lifeboat for £150.00 and for a group of lads to have a good

look around both the inshore D Class and all weather

Shannon Class Lifeboats. As soon as they returned ideas

were quickly generated and volunteers queued up to help

and take part with the Chapel Service that followed. A

welcome from the Head of House and feedback from the

Monitors about a recent visit to the Exmouth Lifeboat

Station started the Service. With a third verse found for an

all-time favourite ‘I Vow to thee my Country’ and superb

musical performances from Jordan To, Paco Chow and

Julius Rachlitz who played the Hornpipe it set the standard

for the other Houses! There were readings from Ying Zhu,

Ed Blackmore and Chris Cabburn and Will McIntyre led us in

Reflections on Mark 6: 48-52, (you could almost say he

swapped his tie for a dog collar!). The Chapel Service raised £763.69!!

Year 9 and the other new lads to the House this year enjoyed the experience of their first Russell (I

think?) and in true No Passengers style helped win another fine selection of Russell trophies for us

including the Points Cup for the eight year in a row. The Inter House Debating came and went

without any trophies but as always the lads threw themselves into getting involved and gained

several very positive comments of feedback from the judges. The House Play saw its first auditions

just before Christmas and the amount of work the cast and crew put into it was brilliant,

culminating in two hilarious productions of ‘Speed Date’. We couldn’t quite match the success of

the Rugby House matches last term with our Hockey and Football but got stuck in none the less

and as the reports detail did extremely well.

Order of Service front cover, designed by Lars Fricke.


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I can only assume that the skittles played across the Common Room this term is a first in Blundell’s

history. The way in which it has got everyone involved and brought visiting skittles teams into the

House has been great. The spontaneous ‘party’ that developed after the NC match was one to

remember!

I must finish with a huge thank you yet again to everyone involved with OH, Parents, Staff and

Pupils. Its success is a direct result of your support, commitment and engagement with everything

on offer.

Charlie Olive

Housemaster, Old House

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