This week the assembly concluded with a moment of high drama. It was time to tell the pupils in Pre-Prep which house they were going to belong to. A brilliant PowerPoint had been prepared. Up came the name of the pupil – we had just enough time to digest who it was when - BHAM! up rose the name of the house and its colour - red for Wolsey, blue for Carroll and yellow for Sayers. From now on those pupils will always be members of that house and will compete against the other houses in all manner of competitions. In Pre-Prep pupils will earn coloured stars and, at the end of the week, all the coloured stars will be added up and the house with the greatest number of stars will win. The tension is building already….

My experience is that people care very greatly about their houses. In the Prep School, when announcements are made about which house has won, wild cheers erupt in one quarter and shocked silence descends in others. My experience is that people love being part of a grouping like a house. These institutions provoke huge loyalty and cause individuals to feel a sense of community with the other members of the grouping. Furthermore they stimulate serious heights of achievement and I have always been interested in the efforts that people make individually on behalf of their houses or colleges or school.

Our houses are named after three remarkable individuals. Thomas Wolsey was a butcher’s son from Ipswich who, during the early Tudor era, rose through natural intelligence and ambition, to be the Chancellor of England (effectively the Prime Minister and chief advisor to king Henry VIII) He was also a Cardinal of the Catholic Church and Archbishop of York amongst many other titles. His energy was prodigious and, in only four years, he had constructed a great deal of Christ Church including Tom Quad and the Great Hall. It’s impossible to imagine that a group of buildings so extensive and of such quality could be completed today in so short a time. Lewis Carroll was the Maths tutor at Christ Church – one of the leading mathematicians of his day, in fact. He was also a very fine amateur photographer. But it is for neither of these reasons that he is principally remembered. It was for his extraordinary works of fantasy and philosophy Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass, which are set in a world remarkably similar to Christ Church. Many of his characters are in common parlance even today. Finally Dorothy L Sayers was a writer of Fiction whose principal character Lord Peter Wimsey is one of the most characterful detectives of all time. She also wrote works upon French Literature and theology. Indeed, she was one of the foremost female academics and writers of her time. It is she that is most closely associated with the school itself as she was born in it, her father having been the Headmaster. A blue plaque to her can still be seen on Brewer Street today.

These remarkable figures associated with Christ Church should remind us that our pupils are being educated in an environment which is associated with people who have achieved great things. I hope they will be inspiring examples for our pupils. Watch this space…..