Talbot's House

We had a fantastic Christmas dinner on the final night of term.

90 of the Talbot's family; boys, staff and parents, descended on the school's cafe bar for the Talbot's dinner this year. As ever Mr Grieve and the staff had done an amazing job, no wonder they are national award winners. Everyone also looked great in their black tie outfits and enjoyed the food and drink, especially the wine from Tizian's parents' vineyard.

During the dinner, Sam Pudylyk stood first, representing St Peter's and talked about our success in house competitions this year and the continuing tightness between the day and boarding sides of the house. It was great to have him there, along with his deputies Chris and Jayan. He was followed by Charlie who firstly gave some excellent and heartfelt thanks to Linda, Lynda, Julie and Shirley for all of their efforts cleaning and then gave his personal reflections on each of the matrons; one imagines Mrs Trigger may want to find a way to return his words next term! Charlie then added some questionable jokes about the upper sixth and some ridiculous chat about Mr Gracie's appearance. Charlie also created  some unofficial house awards of his own which hopefully won't become a tradition as he hoped, though it was excellent to see Mr Finch come close to lad colours! he and the options also chose a top bloke for the term which quite rightly went to Samuel for his warmth and willingness to get invovled and be a friend to everyone.

Mr Gracie then gave a summary of the term in numbers and handed out the term's awards which are listed below this. This paved the way for this year's guest of honour Dr Nick Hart. Not only was he head of Talbot's in 1974, he is also the father of our current head of house. It was fascinating to hear how some things have changed an awful lot and others very little. Dr Hart talked about the changes in what discipline can be carried out by boys, he was at the end of the caning era, and noted the similarities in jobs done by the boys in the house. He also recalled some of his amusing antics as a boy at the school adding that he was not, as Charlie widely reports, expelled! His taking the time to talk to us was really appreciated and an enlightening experience. His noting of greater parental involvement in the life of the house was also something Mr and Mrs G were pleased about as we are so lucky to have amazing support and involvement from so many of our parents.

The dinner was followed by the customary karaoke party and some more drinks back at the house which was a lot of fun as ever, though there were a lot of tired boys who headed to bed fairly quickly!

Awards for the Xmas term:

Star Bakers: Benno and Harun
King of Merits: Tizian
Man of the term: Harun