Talbot's House

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It is always so exciting (We know that's a bit sad!) to welcome everyone back after a holiday!

There is a sense of anticipation about what is to come and a feeling of accomplishment from what went previously. This is no exception and it was particularly amazing to reflect in tonight's welcome back meeting about some of last term's achievements. we focused on the fact that three new societies have been started up at school as a result of involvement of men of Talbot's and then took a show of hands to see who had gone to support someone else from the house in an event, made a school debut in sports or been nominated for a Friday celebration prize. There were, of course, many hands and that is the secret to our growing greatness we feel, everyone in Talbot's plays their part, we have no spare wheels!

Charlie with George

The welcome back meeting had a special twist as we had a surprise  guest to deliver our inspiration slot. Charlie Clare is a professional Rugby player with the Northampton saints who knew Mr Gracie in his previous life as a boarder in the northwest. Charlie was great at sharing honestly about his experiences, both positive and negative, as a both a schoolboy with lofty ambitions and a professional sportsman. It was also really interesting to hear him talk about why he did a degree whilst playing and what he felt it takes to reach the top in any given field. He then stayed around for nearly an hour to talk to some of the boys and give some advice which was hugely appreciated.

Charlie also fulfilled his role for the inspiration slot and left us with not just an inspirational quote, but a whole passage which is copied below. It was great to hear about how the passage (which his dad gave him as a present when he was struggling) had helped him during a difficult time at boarding school and a great quote to get us fired up for the next half of term!

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. 

Many thanks to Charlie and here's to a great half term!

It was also a great week for George as he broke a couple of school records, but he's taking it all in his stride now. He is also going to be debuting in the starting line up for the 1st XV rugby squad this weekend alongside Kighty, and in the 5th team we have Leo, John, Frank, Anthony and Matthew representing the house.

In the under 15's squads we have Andrew playing for the A team, Reidy in the B's, and Ruslan and Alikhan Y have both been promoted this week to the Cs. Henry T is going to be playing under 14Bs and Divine will be representing in the fourth form C team.

Along with all this rugby, we also have Lennart rowing and Adrian and JLo in the Badminton second team.

Earlier in the week, we had our singing practice in the great hall in preparation for house singing next Thursday. Everyone is starting to enjoy the nervous excitement that comes at this time of year as we build up to the big competition and we are looking forward to welcoming those of you who can make it to the house. If you were unable to come, we are hoping to link to the live stream here, so keep you eye out, or check on twitter. We had a great evening celebrating the upper sixth this week, in particular our three boys who turned 18, sharing cakes, encouraging one another and learning how to open a bottle of champagne.

Name	Number of Merits
Divine	8
Jason	8
Tizian	5
Henry N	4
Arthur	4
Alikhan B	3
Harun	3
Richard	3
David	3
Alex S	2
Charles	2
Arron	2
Ruslan	2
Kighty	2
Kevin	2
Brady	2
Ben W	2
Niklas	1
Igor	1
Dan R	1
Nihat	1
Ben K	1
Hodges	1
Matthew	1
John	1
Sasha P	1
Leo	1
Anthony	1

We've had another great week in the house, with loads to celebrate, but special mention this week goes to Jason, Charles, Curtis, Dan, Arthur and Joseph for their incredible resilience. Each of these boys has faced difficult challenges this week, and each of them has come out of it stronger.

Speaking of challenges, we have several boys debuting in rugby matches for the school this week, so good luck to Niklas and Luca in the under 16C team, Aaron in the under 15 Ds and Joseph in the under 14 Es.

Other boys also playing are Kighty and Seward in the 1st XV, Sporton in the 4th and Szeto, John, Leo and Frank in the 5ths. Dan S is playing in the Under 16 C's. Andrew is playing in the 15A's, Reidy in the 15Bs, Brady in 15Cs and, Ruslan and Alikhan are in the 15D team. Henry will be representing the under 14 B's and I'm sure there will be many boys out supporting them.

In the Merit competition this week, King of Merits was Tizian with an incredible 14 merits(!) closely followed by Jason with 11 and Charles with 8.

Name	Number of Merits
Tizian	14
Jason	11
Charles	8
Niklas	7
Edwin	6
Hodges	5
Henry	4
Sporton	3
Frank	3
Brady	3
Dan	3
Divine	3
Simon	2
Kighty	2
Nihat	1
Duncan	1
John	1