St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 3 / Houses

Left: Miss Bellamy, Housemistress, at the steeplechase. Bottom: Senior Netball, 2013.

Far left: Avenue Showcase, 2011. Left:Juniornetballteam,2013. Below left: Christmas party, 2011. Below: Shells dress-up day, 2009.

Avenue (M) Avenue is proud to be the House with the most key pads and door codes; these codes are strictly on a need to know basis! Once you reach the inner sanctum, after passing through three coded doors, you will see the very important blue sofas. Situated just outside the Housemistress’s office (in the part of the House which used to be called the Link), the blue sofas play a crucial role in allowing all years to integrate and spend time chatting about their day. The sofas turned pink once after a mistaken attempt to buy new covers – fortunately this troubling stage did not last long! During the last year, Avenue has had to contend with a few changes. With the building of Jubilee House, Avenue is no longer the newest House and therefore the Housemistress has had to change her spiel to prospective parents; with the appointment of a new Housemistress for one of the Quad side Houses, Avenue also no longer has the shortest Housemistress! However, despite these changes, we are proud to still have the best House Common Room (we might be a little biased!) which is the venue for Susan’s Cake Night on a Tuesday – with peanut butter cookies and Victoria sponge being particular favourites. We are also proud to be a happy and friendly House, in which the older girls (under the leadership of Head of House, Minnie, and Deputies, Georgia and Immy, this year) encourage the younger girls to mix with the Sixth Formers. As Head of House, Minnie’s Hot Chocolate Night each Friday has been very successful – although not quite as popular as whole-House games of sardines! As the relaxed nature of the House befits, the Upper Sixth are often to be heard running through their repertoire of Disney tracks whilst Fourth Formers, Emma and Oriana, can be heard performing their own latest songs. As Housemistress, my favourite two nights of the year are the Christmas party (we take pride in being up later and making more noise than Corfe!) and our House concert, Avenue Showcase. These two events enable all of the girls to

have fun together as well as the Showcase demonstrating how talented the girls are in so many spheres. The girls’ musical talents have been evident in two House Shout titles in the last four years as well as last year’s Shells winning Has Teddies Got Talent! Upper Sixth prefects Ella and Bobbie’s arrangement for the House Harmony this year was also very successful. In recent years, Avenue girls have won Junior Debating, House Challenge, Junior Hockey, Senior Tennis and the Junior Steeplechase. In addition, four Avenue girls have won the individual steeplechase title in recent years, with Storm holding the record for both junior and senior events. Furthermore, we have been proud to have supported Rose and Lily – as they have fulfilled the role of Head Girl in the last two years. With the girls’ impressive collective work ethic and their willingness to get involved in many different activities, they make my job (relatively!) easy and certainly very enjoyable. Rachel Bellamy Housemistress, Avenue (M)

Below: Shells compete in Has Teddies Got Talent. Right: Snowdonia, 2012.

Above: Avenue Shell picnic, 2009.

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