PEARSON
Pearson has now just completed its first four-year cycle of pupils, hence I guess we can now call ourselves a reasonably established House. Not least, the Burgundy brand can often be seen out and about and the House now sports many pictures of its recent history, where even the Lower Sixth now look embarrassingly young as Shell kids.
The first half term was very busy for Pearson with our House Dinner and the Steepo being two key big events which went superbly for us. We had our biggest dinner attendance to date and the entertainment was provided by the House Prefects barbershop rendition of Lean on Me with Henry Munn and Oscar Skelly doing chorus solos. Then Nick Carter and Sam Land hosted 100% and Higher/Lower quizzes respectively, which went down well. Then on Thursday 16th, Pearson 'swept the floor' with virtually full honours in Steepo! Sam Land and Michael O'Connor won the Senior and Middle School Races, but our high placings the top 20 in each age category were what helped us win the cups in each section. However, it was arguably even more satisfying to win the Junior Endeavour Cup, which recognises the participation and efforts of the whole House. Later in the term, Cameron Oliver impressed with his many performances at the Art of Dance show. This was then followed by lots of internal Pool and Table Tennis tournaments in November/December and then a terrific penultimate day with House competitions. We won both Junior and Senior Rowing, came first and second in the Table Tennis and then second and third in the Football.
It then rained relentlessly in the first half term in the New Year. Most of our time was spent rehearsing for the House Song, as the boys belted out Smash Mouth’s lyrics for All Star with the help of no less than ten cazoos! The Ensemble performed a classy rendition of Sway but sadly neither were placed in the top six, to utter disbelief from unbiased Pearson onlookers of course!
In March, Pearson did their regular Haywards Heath Foodbank collection, collecting a generous 125.7kg of items for the Foodbank.
The Trinity term started with perfect weather culminating in a sweltering House morning, in which the Pearson boys did their annual awards in the cool outside venue adjacent to The Headmaster’s pond, followed by Reservoir Paddle boarding (or more accurately ‘diving off the paddle boards’).
Prior to this, it was great to see several of our pupils, such as Ben Rouse and Will Stockley, feature heavily in the fabulous outdoor play, Robin Hood. Indeed, Ben was also a key player in the highly successful Under 14As cricket team, which had big games more or less at the same time as the play.
Throughout the year, we had three weekly House non-Chapel House mixing and integrating time involving us playing board games and football in the Winter and frisbee in the summer, which were great to foster whole House spirit and camaraderie. Not surprisingly, those accompanied by pizza or ice cream were always the most popular!
At the end of year review House assembly, the following won the main awards:
Academic: Alex Gilbertson House representation: Hamish Land Sports: Sam Land Arts: Henry Munn Fifth improver: Ollie Webster and Charlie Clegg Event Involvement and engagement: Oakley Rawner Food Good Factor (staff vote): Sammy Toone and Sean Ng Housemaster’s: Nick Carter
Nick Carter, Head of House