The Hallifordian - 2016-2017

83 Desborough House Report by Mr Harden-Chaters, Head of House This year I have decided to write the house report by taking inspiration from the founder of Desborough house; who so eloquently gave me the advice to “Never thank people by name, as the peo- ple you leave out will always get upset”. Therefore I have omitted any names from this year’s Desbor- ough report, including his, and instead give you a list of facts that show what it meant to be a member of Desborough house in the 2016-17 academic year. If you do want to know who did what then I suggest you ask the pupils and I know they will not only tell you what they did but also why they did it. 1) Every year group was represented in Inter- house singing 2) Even though we just missed out on the med- al positions with a 4th place finish, it was truly a mesmeric performance 3) We sang Mama Said by Lukas Graham 4) Planning for next year’s competition has al- ready started, with our new House Captain planning on regaining our former glory 5) Rumors of an a capella performance can nei- ther be confirmed or denied 6) Desborough’s colour is Old Gold, not orange or yellow or champagne 7) Our words are work, resilience and commu- nity 8) 163 is the most merits a single pupil has gained through the year 9) The Senior and Year 8 rugby teams took home first place 10) There was an obscene amount of bouncing in the Senior rugby games 11) Seeing Y13 dress up as Santa and his helpers fills me with joy every year 12) AY13 Desborough student beat the majority of staff in the General Knowledge Quiz with 79 answers correct out of a possible 100 13) The public speaking teams for both the jun- ior and senior events were absolutely fantas- tic 14) Topics ranged from luck , to procrastination and even a certain Y8 student’s love of socks 15) We won the Senior public speak competi- tion…again 16) AY13 student won best Chairman for a sec- ond year running 17) This is the 4th time in five years we won this competition 18) Interhouse football was our standout compe- tition this year, with pupils channeling the winning spirit of the 1997 Newcastle team when they beat Barcelona in the Champions League 19) Year 7, 8 and 10 all won their groups, with the Seniors coming in second and Y9 in third 20) The trashing of the library was the most memorable assembly of the year, read up on Broken windows theory if you want to know why we did it 21) I have also stopped using the phrase “ this is one of my favorite quotes… ” in every as- sembly, as a Y10 student pointed out I said it every week 22) I promise not to be as competitive as I have been this year 23) Even with some noticeable absentees we managed to win the Senior and Y9 cross country competition 24) One Y12 pupil saw me fall flat on my face during the Senior race and thankfully he has never mentioned it to anyone 25) Desborough House says goodbye to one of its longest standing members of staff this summer 26) She has been here since the founding of the house and will be sorely missed 27) Every member of the house has taken part in at least one Interhouse competition this year 28) Most have taken part in more than one 29) Some have taken part in all of them 30) Four Desboroughites represented their co- hort against the staff in leavers rugby 31) They could only manage a draw against an ever aging side 32) The recipients of the famous Desborough hats epitomise what it means to support the house and the community 33) AY11 is on track to be the next Lewis Ham- ilton 34) The Seniors won Interhouse Basketball with a 100% win record 35) The Intermediate and Junior teams produced some fantastic performances in the face of stiff competition 36) We came 2nd in the Y7 and Y8 Cricket com-