Talbot's House

The first Sunday of term saw a full boarding trip to Thorpe Park. Krittamet's account of it is below:

Part of our house ethos is to be an inspiration in the way you live and pursue the things that you love. We are creating a wall of inspiration to share stories about people who inspire us. It is fun and an opportunity to share your own inspirations very easily - since you only have to click on the wall to add a post. Feel free to post on it below! We will vote for our favourite posts at Exeat.

The charity run started off looking like it was going to be more than we could handle. The team of 15 initially thought they could each stretch to about 7 laps each (being men of Talbot's this was a lot more than most people had committed to of course!). A few of us thought that we would do a few extra to make it a challenge and so set ourselves a target of 120 as a group - the course is roughly just under 1.5km so you can do the Maths for how far that was! The boys had decided to run for Barnardo's and Cancer Research UK (the reasons why are here). (NOT TOO LATE TO SPONSOR - links at the bottom of the page)

Having chosen a challenging target, to then lose Justus and Karan from the team on the day due to ill health was therefore quite a blow!
However, the house spirit came through and boy can we be proud of the team. We will get back to the runners, but the support of Fuga, Charlie, Jonny and Justus who gave out chocolate and water, counted the laps and were still there giving encouragement at the end was amazing. They even set off for a lap each in their uniforms when it looked like we may not reach the total we had committed too. They were joined in doing so by Ali.B who also waved his umbrella above his head most of the way for good measure.

So what happened I here you ask?... Well we were helped by the above laps and one each from Will and Elisha Gracie, but as you can see, that still left us way off our target. The lads running then nearly all proceeded to run an extra lap at least to make sure we made it. Duncan then ran 9 laps to make sure he had chipped in even more. MRG managed to complete 14 to add to the total. This was surpassed by Josh who completed 15 laps. The last 3 were accompanied by John, Tom and Ben.K who followed him around on bikes and played motivational music to keep him going. There were only a handful of people left on the course at that stage, one of whom was Ben.N who kept going..... and going....... and going and didn't stop until tea time when he had completed a monumental 21 laps. By that stage we were well into the 130's as a team, a fantastic effort.

As housemaster, this event summed up much of that makes me proud of Talbot's. The lads chose their own charities and voted as a house to support them. They set their own targets which were really challenging and then superceded  them in adversity. Beyond that though, they came through as amazing supporters of their friends. What a privilege it is to work with such incredible young men. Jack, Philip, Alex, Benno, Michael, Rufus, Assan, Leo, Dom.K, Josh, Ben and Duncan we salute you.

If you think the charities we ran for are worthwhile causes, then please do show your support for the lads by adding some money to the just giving pages.

Barnardo's
Cancer Research UK

There's a man who gave it his all!

Team Simmo playing 'Jerusalem' as he finishes his final lap

The youngest and oldest members of the team

The quiz evening provided an excellent opportunity to look back on another excellent term for the men of Talbot's. It has been frenetic at times and there are some very weary lads (and staff) who are ready for the holidays. This is of course because of everything that has been put into the term and it was fantastic to be able to celebrate all of that.
In terms of school participation, yet again we have much to be proud of. A very large number of boys have represented the school in sports matches and we have had people involved in teams from 9 different sports. We celebrated this and then cheered in particular for Nico (football) and Karan (fives) who achieved minor colours and Ben.N for his major colours in Hockey. Our outstanding achiever in sport this term was Tom who has been selected for the England under 16 Hockey squad to play in the 4 nations tournament over the holidays.

The termly merit competition was fierce and pleasingly needed a lot of adding up! We found out the next day that the 4th form were 2nd out of all 12 houses in merits earned per person this term and that the Remove form were first in the school! The yeargroup termly merit counts panned out as follows:
U6th: 3rd: Max, 4, 2nd: Ali, Jordie and Mik, 5, 1st: Benson, 7
L6th: 3rd: Rio and Assan, 6, 2nd: James, 7, 1st: Mike, 9
5th: 3rd: Jonny, 5, 2nd: Charlie, 8, 1st: Tom, 12
Remove: 3rd: Duncan, 14, 2nd: Bob, 20, 1st: Jun, 29
4ths: 3rd: Sasha, 17, 2nd: Adrian.H, 18, 1st: Alex.G, 30
This leaves Alex as our top merit winner of the term, 1 ahead of Jun.

For the first time, the house voted for the best blog post of term. There were some amazing posts written by boys this term and it was no surprise therefore, that the voting was widespread. However, one did pull ahead and win: Josh's Ice Skating writeup was deemed to be best. You can read it here.

We also had our termly #Talbotslife competition, which was again won by Josh for his photo of his supporters cheering him around the charity run. Justus came a close second for his picture of the whole house in hoodies.

Finally, the options awarded their Tob Bloke fo the term. This went to a man who has set a great example for getting involved in school life, been made head of the charities committee, entertained the house with video night and general banter(?) and gave a great Art lecture last week. That man is Assan!

No term would be complete without the awarding of House Colours. This time around they went to three very deserving young men. Each ahs made excellent contributions to house life and importantly, demonstrate good character to the other lads in their own way. Congratulations therefore, to: James.L, Ali and Jack.

This should have been entered for #Talbotslife

Josh won best blog post for his Ice Skating write up and Tom has been selected for England

Karan getting his minor colours

Benno receiving his best recruit award at the CCF AGI

Ben won his major colours

Alex got the most merits

Last Thursday saw the traditional end of term quiz evening. Philip, Leo and Justus served us up a treat with 9 rounds of 8 questions. Their powerpoint was slick and topics varied (though MRG felt there could have been more Geography). The competition was fierce and some of the team names showed deep thought, with Spanish efficiency being a particular favourite of the house. The all important enormous pizza order was coupled with the usual favourite drinks and the new addition of cream soda which was well received. The occasion is not completely serious of course though, and Aaron's sombrero reminded us that this was an evening for good humour. This proved an important lesson particularly because when all was said and done, though it was a valiant effort from the boys who gave their all, the STAFF yet again came out victorious.