Talbot's House

It's been a great week.

Last Sunday we were the duty house in chapel and Orlando and Alex did an amazing job reading alongside our terrific ushers.

On the house competition front we have been quite phenomenal. We started with wins in the A  and B streams of house Rugby, followed by first in the junior rowing and a top 6 in the basketball. We then took second in basketball and an overall win in house table tennis. 
What. A. Week!

In teams this weekend are:

U16 A: Will (VC), Henry, U16B: Divine
U14A: Max,U14D: Josh
Our big sports story this week is Magomed who has been promoted 2 teams after a week of try scoring heroics to the U14C!

Merits:
1: James, Simon, Richard, Moritz, Luca, Igor
2: Alexis, Makar, Alex, Roy, Kabi, Brady, Alikhan, Edwin, Arthur, Oscar
3: Max, Josh, jason, Kevin, Ben, Nik
4: Desmond
5: Orlando, Arron

The tutor quiz was obviously too easy with every group earning 10/10 this week.

Ruslan has also gained himself a commendation for an excellent online safety presentation to the prep school - a great effort!

Top Bloke
For helping read and fetching many meals for sick boys: Alex.

Man of the Week 
For fetching meals, 5 merits and great reading, but also setting a school record in the junior individual indoor rowing event is: Orlando.

We also had our first ever house art gallery & tutor group play competition with Mrs Thomspon's tutor group wining.  

This year we had our highest levels of representation in this with James, Ben, Stephen, Owen, Jason, Alexis, Leo and Marcus.
Many members of the house were able to see it live, but for those who weren't, the livestream is below:

The first week back has seen renewal of our amazing community spirit and fond memories of the first half of term where we started building an even greater house, and also happened to win sports day and singing!

James played 3 pieces in the organ concert on Thursday, quite a feat, and Lennart reported on an amazingly successful senior quad race on the tideway in half term.

We also enjoyed updates from the rowing camp and D of E during half term.




  

Merits: 
1: Edwin, Curtis, Evgenii, Igor, Nik, Richard, Ben, Michael, David, Kabi, Seb, Max
2: Will, Orlando, Makar
3: Josh, Jason
4: Stephen

Weekly Merits per Boy Competition Winners
Mr Waite's tutor group won the new weekly merits per boys competition.

Matron's Weekly Quiz Winners 
Mr Waite and Mr Dawson;s tutor groups also shared the prize for matron's weekly quiz

Top Bloke 

Top Bloke was awarded jointly to Brady and Ruslan for getting the house tuck shop up and running, an excellent thing to have going again.

We surveyed all the boys in the house to say 1 thing they are grateful for and this has been turned into a poster for the house where the most said phrases appear larger. We think it reflects a house in a healthy place and that this has highlighted loads of the amazing things about being a man of Talbot's. Take a look:

Lots has happened this week, especially in the field of music. There has been a choir trip and lots of hard practice for house singing.  This included our first rehearsal in the great hall with Mr Sanders watching. The musical highlight was the lunchtime concert where the part song performed and included Ben, James, Tizian and Arron's first ever public singing performance at school. Ben also sang a great piece from 'The Messiah' and Leo matched Arron with a wonderful first upper school singing performance.

Richard was one of the most successful players in the 1st team table tennis game this week. Nathan and Divine played well for the U16 basketball side. Last weekend Seb also raced at the national school ski championships.

Edwin also went to his LNAT test in Cambridge - inspirational stuff.

In Sports this Weekend

It's been a really busy week with lots of great opportunities for boys to try new things or give their best in their commitments. 

In music, James and Marcus performed well in the lunchtime piano concert.  Plenty of lads also went to the Gilbert Lloyd lecture and Quarry Theater play Ion Thursday.

In sport, the might 5ths came close to a ridiculous 3rd win of the season with Brady and Moritz really putting their bodies on the line and Simon getting stuck in for the 4ths.  Divine also continued to electrify the U16B wing against Flested.  Will, Henry, and Max have had busy weeks playing for the U16 and U14A teams on both Tuesday and Friday--a very busy week overall!

In basketball, Divine and Nathan played well for the U16 win and Igor held the water polo team to a comfortable victory.

There was amazing house commitment shown by Roy, Alex, Edwin, and Tizian who also turned up last minute to perform very creditably in house debating.

This weekend Desmond makes his 2nd 1st team badminton appearance and is joined by Nathan.

In the 5ths we have Simon, Roy in the U15D.  Bertie received the biggest cheer of the week for his promotion to the U14E team!

This was also the first Friday celebration since our incredible 6th consecutive sports day win too--to say we have been gloating would be, well, accurate!

Merits (double roll-over due to Exeat last week)
1:  Divine, Tizian, Moritz
2: Max, Bertie, M, Brady, Oscar
3:  Seb, James, Curtis, Igor
4:  Jason, Ben, Niklas
5:  Dell, Will, David
6:  Alex
7:  Aslan
8:  Makar
9:  Desmond, who is King of Merits this week!

Top Bloke
Roy for being so helpful, gaining loads of merits, and stepping up brilliantly to fill in house debating last week.

Man of the Week
Felix who has gained loads of merits, been terrifically helpful to Ms Larson and Mrs Leicester, and had a fantastically tidy room.

Well...!

We've only been back 3 days, but so much has happened already.  We started off with New Boys' Day on Tuesday, in which the Upper Sixth were superb!

The ten newest members of Talbot's have added much and therefore had many 'firsts' such as lessons, games sessions, extra activities and nights in the house!  On Wednesday, we had the first Sports Hall visit of the term, which was played in great spirit (see pictures below), and was an early chance to show some skills.  To be fair, Stephen was probably Man of the Match with his silky footwork, but Aslan impressed in particular with his remarkable bravery as he took a peppering in goal!

The Lower Sixth have started their first duties supervising prep time and stepping up to new leadership challenges.  Saturday sees trial matches for the Fourth Form so those lads have a week to wait for any school sports debuts.  House Singing also begins in earnest next week and promises to bring us unity as we compete with everyone else.

In Merits this Week
1:  Jason, Richard, Moritz, Curtis, Evgenii, Igor, Oscar
2:  Simon
3:  Brady, who is King of Merits and also graduated from the NCS course he undertook over the summer.


In Sports this Week
U15:  Alex continues in the A Team having been a part of the festival sinning side that didn't concede a try last weekend.
U16:  Divine is in the B's and is joined by a pair of vice-captains with Will in the A's and Henry in the B's.

The story of the week, however, is in the 5th XV where 6 men of Talbot's will be donning the eagle of our favourite team:  Simon, Alikhan, Evgenii, Igor, Brady, and Moritz are those men.  You know that when a third of the squad are Talbot's legends, there is going to be a great show!

Top Bloke
Jointly awarded by Igor and the Upper Sixth to Bertie and Leo, who have already impressed by getting stuck in and helping with house sports stuff this week.

Man of the Week
Moritz deserves a really special mention for being awarded the house's first commendation of the year for being fantastically helpful on the Berlin trip.  This, along with his amazing support to his new roommate in the house, makes him our deserved Man of the Week.

via IFTTT

It's the end of term, and we're all going to be enjoying a well deserved break here at the house and strongly suggest you all do too!

We'll be in touch with those of you who have exam results coming out on results day, but other than that, we look forward to seeing you all again in September.

Have a great summer!

This has been a busy week as we progress towards the end of the term and the Creative Arts Festival has been under way.

James performed in the new music concert, impressively playing the piano and singing together for the first time. Will played in the junior house cricket where hopefully lots of fun was had since results didn't quite go our way!  Igor's water polo team won despite him sustaining an injury and M  played well as the golf side competed well in the county competition.

Very impressively, Arthur raced in a quad trying to qualify for Henley today right after returning from a trip to a Paris fashion school.

This weekend, Henry is part of the boy produced play Rosencrantz and Guildenstein Are Dead at the Creative Arts Festival on both Saturday and Sunday nights.

In Sports this Week
Will in U15C, who is joined in Cricket by David, Felix and Kabi, who will take part in an epic U15D vs U14D game!


In rowing, Henry, Orlando and Alex are racing at Peterborugh and Lennart, too.

Merits
1: Orlando, Dell, Michael, Richard, Ben, Edwin, Curtis, Stephen, Luca
4:  Alex

A special award was given tonight to those who drew the worst teams in the World Cup in our sweepstake. Well done to Michael and Divine who drew Egypt and Panama respectively.

We look forward to seeing all of you who are available to join us for the House BBQ this weekend!

This is the first full Friday celebration after exam week and then well-being week; we are now back into the swing of things for the final couple of weeks.

Recent special mentions must go to:
Luca who organised a number of parts of the well-being week
Felix who was last week's Man of the Week because of his turning up to play a cricket game and helping win it on the final ball despite it being his first ever game of cricket!
Big well done to Ben, Richard and  Ruslan who finished their GCSE's this week and the A level guys who all, bar Frank, finished today.

Ben also sang brilliantly in yesterday's lunchtime concert.

In sports tomorrow we have a narrower offering with Will in the U15Cs vs St Alban's for cricket and Lennart rowing at Marlow Regatta.

Merits
1:  Alex, James, Michael, Divine, Will, Jason, Henry, Igor
2:  Roy

Man of the Week
Dell who organised a hilarious game on Sunday afternoon for his whole year group--a great thing to do!

Another great week in the house!  We started with superb sunshine after the bank holiday weekend and IB exams continued whilst the 5th Form study leave and GSCE's began.

This has been a fantastic week in the house!  Most importantly, our community has grown to include M in the 4th Form who has proved a popular, friendly addition.

The sunshine has also been amazing and meant that there has been the return of some great garden football sessions in the evening and a fantastic fire on Thursday (photos below).

In music, Ben, James, and Marcus have been preparing for tonight's big bands concert and played superbly in assembly today.

Edwin also got a shout out in assembly for his efforts at the model UN.

Lennart is returning late as he has been pushing hard for German rowing selection; we hope it has gone well.

Kabi has also been continuing training after his county hockey selection.

This week sees the start of summer sports and the following have matches:  Will is in the cricket U15C & Kabi in the U14C.

The following have gained merits this week:
1--Theo, Alex E., Zakhar, Roy, Seb, Divine, Simon, Tizian, CUrtis, and Niklas
2--Orlando, Will, Moritz, Edwin, and Evgenii

Amazingly, Roy also gained a commendation for his sterling efforts representing the school at the regional maths challenge.

Top Bloke
James for his impressive BBQ skills

Man of the Week
Edwin for his amazing contributions to the Harpur Trust Debate & the model UN.

Special Note
George for being selected for the Samurai Sevens next weekend

It's been a musical & dramatic couple of weeks!  Many of our boys participated in the Bedfordshire Festival and other events around school.  We'd like to give special recognition to Ben, James, and Stephen for their amazing work!  Additionally, Orlando gained an award for earning an impressive 75 academic merits this year.

A special 'Well Done' to Adrian, Frank, Justin, Alex K., Leo, and John as they will be participating in their last ever sports fixtures for the school this weekend.

This past week also saw some phenomenal accomplishments in rowing.  Alex E., Orlando, Sebastian, Roy, Henry T., Evegenii, Edwin, Arthur, Niklas, and Lennart all participated in the National Schools Head.  Niklas, Edwin, and Arthur all gained minor colours while Lennart received his majors for being part of the victorious 1st VIII.

Looking ahead, we are getting excited for next Wednesday's House Quiz Night and the charity run on Thursday.

In Teams this week:

Badminton
1st:  Adrian and Justin
2nd:  Nathan

Football
2nd:  Leo and  John
U16A:  Alikhan
U16B:  Tizian
U15A:  Felix

Hockey
4ths:  Frank
U15B:  Divine
U14C:  Kabi
U14D:  Zakhar

7s
Nationals at Rosslyn Park:  George and Alikhan
U15s:  Will
U16s:  Alikhan

Merits (a double rollover from before Exeat)
1:  Theo, Edwin, Arthur, and Igor
2: Tizian
3: Marcus, Jason, Ruslan, Dan, and Niklas
4:  Roy, Michael, and Will
6:  Orlando
7:  Simon
8:  Divine and Moritz -- Joint King of Merits

Theo received a commendation for an excellent piece of written work.

Top Bloke
--Pending--

Man of the Week
Adrian for his commendation for being one of the best Badminton  captains in recent years.

It's been a week of freezing temperatures and snowfall!  The boys have been rather resilient in soldiering on despite the cold.  Hopefully, they'll get a chance to enjoy it once lessons are finished Saturday afternoon!

Many of the sports fixtures have been canceled or postponed due to the weather so there is not much to report on there. 

House Competitions
A number of boys helped out with house competitions this week.  Some boys rose to the occasion at short notice, as well, and we'd like to give special recognition to Zakhar and Joe for their efforts with house drama.

Merits
1: Michael, Jason, Simon, Richard, Tizian, Dan, Moritz, Alikhan, and Igor
2:  Theo, Dell, Divine, Joe, Nathan, Ruslan, Ben, and Niklas
3:  Zakhar
4:  Alex and Roy
8:  Orlando!!

Divine has received another commendation; his sixth this academic year, which is simply amazing!

The 4th Form have qualified for another meal our for averaging more than 3 merits per person in a week--Well Done, Boys.

Man of the Week
Edwin for being shortlisted for an Oxford Essay prize.

It's been a busy start to the second half of term!  Despite the cold weather, the boys are in great spirits.

Happy New Year!  We hope you all enjoyed the much-deserved break.  The boys have settled back in the house now and have almost finished their first week of school for 2018.  We also welcomed new Talbots boy Felix Barth.  All the boys have done exceptionally well this week especially considering many battled jet lag while the Upper Sixth and Fifth Form returned to mock exams.