The Pocklingtonian 2018/19 | Page 35

Heads of House and they say: ‘We look forward to getting to know the new boarders, and are excited to run and hold inclusive activities as a house.’ School has also bestowed the role of Deputy Head Girl to Anna Wedge, and School Prefect to Emilia Couttie and Ellie Harrison. These girls are leaders and role models, and it is fantastic to see so many of our girls standing in positions of responsibility. Well done girls; we are so proud of you! FENWICK-SMITH HOUSE 2018-19 has been another really successful year in Fenwick-Smith House and it remains a pleasure and a privilege to be Housemaster and part of the wider boarding community. Once again, as well as our regular 7 night a week and weekly boarders we have welcomed numerous day boys who have joined us to make the most of what the boarding community at Pocklington School has to offer. We like to feel that we provide the balance of a home from home atmosphere, some fun activities, and fantastic pastoral and academic support. We have had a great team of non-resident tutors and we have all enjoyed working with a super set of lads. The team has been: Mr Perham, Mr Wareham, Mr Wheeler, Mr Copley and Mr Parker and our fabulous Day Matron, Kim Burnside. I am lucky to work alongside the legend that is Mr Loten (TLo) who continues to offer an amazing amount of maths support to the boys and the girls from Faircote. Mr Wareham has moved on to pastures new and we wish him all the best. Mrs Dare deserves a mention as she keeps me on the right path and supports the boys fantastically through the OP network. Joint Head of House, Marco Li, for example, was very grateful to Rachel who set up a physiotherapy placement locally and he has subsequently gone on to university to study physiotherapy. Sally Terry, Julia Metcalfe, Sue Jackson, Jinny Anderson & Lynne Baxter do a great job in keeping the house clean and tidy and sorting the laundry for FSH, Dolman and even Orchard House on Saturdays too! One of the joys of being Fenwick-Smith Housemaster is that a significant number of our boys stay in touch with us after they have left, giving us updates about their travels, study and career stories. For example Vasyl Ilchyshyn, OP, who is from the Ukraine did brilliantly at university and obtained a First Class Honours degree recently. It will be great to see his name up on the honours board in the music school. “Just writing to tell you that I have achieved a first-class degree in Business Economics. I will be graduating from the University of Exeter next week. It has been a fantastic journey from the A-level to a university degree. I want to thank you and your wife for all your help and support throughout these past years. It was a wonderful time back at the Fenwick-Smith house and I really appreciate all of your time and effort that you are putting in it on a daily basis”. Our motto at Fenwick-Smith is “work hard, play hard”. It speaks volumes for the house that the last 3 Head Boys have all been FSH lads: Rob Smith, Edward Dare and Henry Foster. New Head boy Mike Smith and Joint Deputy Heads Ben McNamara & Cameron Adams have all enjoyed time boarding in Fenwick-Smith House. They are all great all-rounders who embody the spirit of what it is to be a Pocklingtonian and they are great ambassadors for the boarding house and the school. Our new Head of House, Afonso Spencer, has this to say about last year: “This has been another fun and exciting year for Fenwick Smith House. A lot of pupils have joined the boarding house which creates a good and diverse environment in which people can have fun, experience different cultures but can also focus on work. We started the year with a fresh set of 4th years who were keen to mingle with the seniors and become part of the Fenwick-Smith family. This was a year which was full of day pupils who were boarding certain nights or just staying in late due to the immense academic help that is on offer at Fenwick Smith House. As with every year, our boarders invited day pupils to play some games of snooker, pool, table tennis and table football in our traditional Christmas games or just when they wished to play with the day pupils. Our boarding house wishes to integrate with day school and we like to have as many day pupils visit our house and stay over. We also appreciate that many of them wish to invite their friends over for a night especially after taking part in a senior boarding activity: watching a Hull city game, watching a band perform and many more. We also have to mention our staff who keep the whole boarding house running THE POCKLINGTONIAN 33