Talbot's House

If you're joining us for the Christmas play this afternoon you can look forward to some delicious minced pies that baking club have prepared for us and a glass of mulled wine.

We've had some great entries in our newly launched Talbot's life instagram competition this term and we are really looking forward to announcing the winner at the end of this term.

Josh S

Tom C

Justus G

Josh S

Nihat A

Ben K

Josh S

Another epic week in the house has come to an end and there is much to celebrate as ever!

On the domestic front, it was exciting to see boys arriving back from Exeat with Christmas decorations for their rooms. Mrs Gracie went around them all to see how they were getting on and was so impressed by the odour (Nice not nasty) in Fitt that they were awarded an impromptu prize. Well done Assan and Rufus. the cleanest room went to Henderson, home of Charlie, Dom.K, Alex and Jonny. We also put up the decorations in the barn on Friday, it is certainly colourful, but the effect of mini Talbots getting involved needed some repair over the weekend!

On the sporting front, we were duped into thinking Tom had received confirmation of his place in the England U16 Hockey training squad, but we are still waiting. There were a good number of boys in teams again, with the 5th team again having our biggest representation; Dylan, Assan, James.S and Philip doing us proud. Nihat and Duncan's promotions to the under 15C team to join Bob left them a close second.

The biggest news on the sporting front was that the march to the senior Fives title is finally complete and

We also had the house trip to grease this week and celebrated how good Rio, Ilya and Dylan were in it. Mr G was also mentioned.

This week's house Merit competition saw the title finally returned to its spiritual home - Bob's desk (4 merits) with Assan and Sergey in second place on 3 and Sasha, Kritt and Rio all on 2.

The top bloke award went to Adrian.H for his all around smiley presence in the house and lightening of the atmosphere.

Man of the week went to the man who took another member of the house to the bank to help them get a statement and baked matron a birthday cake as well as being a top head of house. That man is Dom.B!

Top Bloke: Jack

Man of the Week: Duncan

This week's celebration saw fries as the accompanying snack, a welcome introduction into the Friday night hot food lineup. It has been a great week with many boys in sports matches and the house trip to the Lion king; writeup coming soon. Mrs Gracie also made her Friday night debut as Mr Gracie and a number of boys were at the St Cecilia's day concert, another writeup to come soon!

Outside of the main house awards, there have been some excellent achievements this week. Bob was on Mr Tighe's list of praiseworthy reports from half term. Mik and James.L represented the school as the two upper sixth formers in the Maths Challenge team, whilst James was also a member of the Physics Olympiad team the following day. Friday was also the exhibition of work from the Rome Art trip which featured the boys in the post below. The #talbotslife photo competition has kicked off with Josh leading the way in volume of posts so far.

Dom and Karan in the house Fives

Matthew played really well in the woodwind concert on Thursday, whilst Ben.K scored two tries in the Natwest cup game on the same day. In  sport this week, Aaron and Benson won their Badminton match as part of the team's unbeaten season, Karan's first fives team won and Jonny swam excellently for the school. The senior house fives team featuring Karan, Dom.K. and Michael also won their leg to take us into the final round still in first place. We also had 21 boys selected for Rugby teams, including Rufus making a comeback in the 3rd XV in his first game of the year and the 5th team being our most represented team with Dylan, Ben.N., Philip, James.S and Assan being selected.

In the Merit competition, 3 was only enough for Kritt and Adrian.S to make it into second place, as Hodges won with 4.

James.L retained his cleanest room award with Ben.K joining him in a joint award.

Jack was the Top Bloke as he started the house Pool and Table Tennis ladders which have been hotly contested.


The man of the week was Duncan as he was given special mention by the matrons for his helpfulness, scored a try, wrote a blog article, earned 2 merits and was awarded Chemist of the week. That's quite a 7 days!

Alastair plays it straight for the camera, as ever!

It was an absolute pleasure to go and see the work Charlie, Assan, Alastair and John did on the Art fieldtrip to Rome over half term. As ever, the department catered for adult visitors excellently and boys were on hand to link their photos and sketches to their experiences whilst away. You can see some taster shots below of what boys were up to, including the head of our dayhouse, St Peter's, James Skirrow.

Last night we launched a new house photo competition on instagram for the best photo that represents an aspect of life in Talbots. It will be a rolling competition with a winner each half term. You can keep up with the entries by searching #talbotslife on instagram or "instagram.com #talbotslife" twitter.

Winners and runners up will be posted here on the blog each half-term.

Man of the Week - Alistair

Friday night celebration is always a welcome finish to the week and never more so than after a long two week half term. This week saw a new hot snack in potato wedges and garlic bread. Though Andrea's took longer than promised to cook it, it was worth the wait. There is much to be celebrated this week, as ever:

Last half term was super busy, but it was only a warm up for what is to come!

I am really proud of the way the house has quickly settled into routines and a solid identity. You would find it very hard, I imagine, to pick out those boys who started this year and those who are seasoned campaigners, which is a sign that the first half term was very successful to my mind. The 4th form have made a real impact as they have won both sports day and house Rugby and they have set a pace for the rest of St Peter's to keep up with. We also competed valiantly in house swimming and water Polo and started a strong march in the senior house Fives.

Of course, house singing did not go as hoped in terms of results, but there was much to be proud of.

Over half term, we have rejigged the barn, thanks to some donated furniture from Mr Holroyd and added a much demanded freezer to the kitchen. We have also put a pull up and dip station along with a punch bag in the boot room. the boys seem pleased with them thus far, but all of these developments pale into insignificance compared to the awesome super hero posters now adorning the Boot Room walls!


Now we have returned it is the 3rd of Movember. Mr Rees, myself and Head of House, Dom Brett are part of the Bedford School team for this excellent charity event. Mr Rees has the best Mo thus far but I have a sneaking suspicion he has been cheating and growing it over half term... Please take a look at the Bedford school team page if you get the chance and follow our regular facial hair growth updates on twitter; Hulk Hogan watch out!

This half term sees us visiting the Lion King in London, as chosen by the boys, and going to see Dylan, Rio and Ilya performing in Grease. The dramatic theme will be continued in the house where Mr Rees will be directing the juniors and new boys in our traditional house Christmas play on the 8th of December. I heard the previous director was outstanding so he has a lot to live up to, but I am sure with the help of Mike, Assan and Charlie it will be another roaring success. This is followed by the Christmas dinner on the 12th. we would love to see you at one or both of the events.

I am also particularly looking forward to the school's second TEDx event, organised by our very own Karan. We may also be hosting some special guests prior to this event...

In between all of this, there are many lessons to be done, Preps to complete, concerts to perform in and matches to play, so do keep returning to here to see what is going on.

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Mr Gracie

Well... What to report on house singing?

The fundamental thing about the competition is that it is the one event in the year where the whole house comes together and strives for the same goal. We have achieved this most impressively this term. On the night there was no new and old or junior/senior we were one solid unit. Did we give it our all in the build up and on the night? yes we did. Were we rewarded for it? It depends on your version of rewarded!

The boys certainly gave it their all but due to the pressure didn't quite perform with the control we had in the practices. However, it was a decent performance as all who were present would agree. When the judge read out that we had finished in sixth place there was stunned silence throughout the auditorium. I, as housemaster, was gutted for our lads. Its true that someone always has to come last but this felt unjust. However, it is a subjective competition and it is a lesson for us all moving forward in executing on the night and that quantitative results don't necessarily reflect the intangible achievements we have made in the process of preparing for the event. Particular credit must go to Mr Rooke as our resident music teacher, James Mactavish for his accompaniment and Karan Gupta for his excellent conducting of practices prior to and on the night.

Perhaps a greater shock was the part song not winning. They were outstandingly controlled and tight and the full range of vocal talent in the group as used excellently. However, the judge awarded the prize to Paulo citing balance in the arrangement as the reason. This felt more unjust in some ways given the way they performed on the night.

There will have been no consolation taken by the fact that both the unison and part were far superior to Messrs Rooke and Gracie's efforts for the staff man band either!

It was Paulo's night as they won all 3 trophies, something which no one could begrudge them after their performances on the night.

The good thing about our lads is they embody the maxim 'you can't keep a good man down'. The disappointment was quickly put to one side as we returned to the house to an excellent sound setup for another one of our epic karaoke parties. It was important to recognize at this point in the term how far everyone has come and the boys should rightly feel proud of their achievements in the singing, even if their efforts weren't reflected on the night.