O X F O R D  H O U S E

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Click here for 2007 report

 

This was another excellent year for Oxford House, with the majority of the boys contributing significantly to success in academic work, sport, music and drama. What follows is a brief summary. Apologies to those who feel their achievements have gone unnoticed.

Sport
The House Championship was won convincingly for the sixth year running. The Senior boys were superb throughout the year, winning the football, table tennis, badminton, basketball and volleyball. The Juniors won the table tennis and also came close in the tennis and cricket tournaments. The three major events of the year, athletics, swimming and cross-country,were all won by Oxford.

It was a fantastic team effort throughout the year, with a level of commitment and support from the Oxford boys which was outstanding. Much of the credit for this must go to Andrew Ellis and Jonny Sasati for their organisation and coaching.  There were some great individual performances as well. Seyra Dagadu, Tom Henderson and Elliot Welch made it a clean sweep of the ‘Victors’ on Athletics Day. Tsidi Dagadu also broke the School high jump record and was given the Andrew Foot Award for  his contribution to School sport. Andrew Ellis won the cross-country again, breaking his own school record. He was followed closely over the line by his brother James. Huge thanks from me go to Tom Jennings, Seyra Dagadu, Team Ellis and Jonathan Sengendo. Their house sports efforts over the last few years have been outstanding, and they will be difficult to replace.

Many of the boys competed for the School, with Oxford dominating the football first XI, swimming squad and table tennis team. We had other representatives in basketball, cricket and hockey. Several boys achieved regional recognition in their particular sports, with Tom Henderson and Will Hodson winning events at the Croydon athletics, and Tsidi Dagadu coming second  in the National High Jump Championship.

Academic
It was a pleasure throughout the year to read so many good reports. There were some excellent results at GCSE (Ryan Walters, Amar Dhesi and James Osbaldeston in particular), AS (Chris Knight) and A level (Jon Sengendo, Andrew Ellis, Ivan Cheung, James Ellis, Nattapon Kanokvaleewong and Leo Zhou). Jonathan Sengendo has now gone on to study Engineering at Cambridge University. Good luck to all of the Year 13s as they start university courses.

On Royal Russell Day individual awards were given to Josh Sealy (Effort Prize, Year 9) and Oliver Morgan (Exam Prize, Year 9). GCSE prizes went to Amar Dhesi (History) and  James Osbaldeston (Geography). A level prizes went to  Nattapon Kanokvaleewong (Business), Andrew Ellis (Art), Jon Sengendo (Physics), Ivan Cheung (Chemistry) and Chris Knight (D&T). Seyra Dagadu also won the Hollenden  Prize for his contribution as Head Boy.

Other awards collected on Royal Russell Day were for the Junior Maths Challenge, Inter-house Quiz-Bowl, CCF Best Training Squadron Cadet (Alasdair Culbert) and Best Skier (Nathan Brown).

Music & Drama
Many of the boys contributed enormously in these areas. George Worth, Will Hodson and Elliot Welch played significant roles in the junior production of ‘Our Day Out’. Will, Chris Knight, Angus McPhail and Callum Welch were all hard-working members of the Barbershop. Chris, Jason Cho and Alex Taylor were part of the School Orchestra. All of these boys contributed to some outstanding performances, in School and on tour, throughout the year. Tom Jennings, Seyra Dagadu, James Ellis and Andrew Ellis offered a memorable contribution to the Christmas revue. Thankfully Callum and Elliot Welch, along with sister Roxy, provided some more cultural entertainment.

House Events
The Christmas party was as riotous as ever, and long may it continue. The Summer BBQ was taken to another level this year, with various inflatable things on display, and the Oxford boys, as usual, won the 50-a-side football (I think). Both of these events were enjoyed by the majority of the boys and the Oxford staff. The boarders also had memorable Christmas and Halloween parties, and trips out to the IMAX, paintballing etc.

Thanks
Huge thanks from me to the loyal Oxford staff: Mr Ellis, Mr Barrett, Mr Finch, Mr Moore and Miss Latessa. Also thanks to Jonathan Sengendo, Stanley Li and Seyra Dagadu, who were a great support as the senior boys in the house. Finally thanks to all of the Oxford boys for their hard work, commitment and good humour throughout the year.

Steven Greaves
Housemaster