Kiplings, one of the three competitive houses here at Bethany, have taken this academic year by storm. Starting the year off in September by winning sports day, they set the tone for the year to follow. Read more as Head of Kiplings, Mrs Clough, reveals all.

Sports Day was a pleasure to witness with Kipling’s pupils showing real teamwork and commitment by supporting one another and showing a real house spirit. It is not always about winning (although that helps at times) but it is about taking part and getting involved which Kipling’s does with such confidence. Their passion and team spirit is contagious and has allowed us as a house to go from strength to strength as the year has gone on.

Following sports day another team event took place in the form of tug of war. Again, the Kipling’s house spirit was strong, and pupils took part and filled any gaps to ensure the victory yet again was ours. The noise in the hall was electric and the encouragement for each team was really pleasing to see. Kipling’s won 8 out of the 9 events across all the year groups and allowed our lead in the KRS house event to grow.

As the year sped toward the festive period we had the Christmas House Shout to plan, organise and deliver. With a house full of creatively talented people, the House Shout proved to be an outstanding event to showcase this. We not only had solo performances from Maddy and Scarlett leading the way as our Sixth Form singers, but we also had props galore making our take on the theme of ‘Christmas dinner’ an exceptional one. We all rallied together and sang Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ cleverly changing the word ‘You’ to ‘Stew’ was a stroke of genius by Mr Evans, a Kipling’s staff member. Alfie then followed suit with an outstanding suggestion to include the word ‘mince pie’ inside of ‘and I’. ‘present’ was also replaced by the word ‘pheasant’ which combined with the other food related puns we managed to make the song our own delivering the changes with comedic timing. Their creative input, along with the gusto from the rest of the house singing and performing like professionals, again secured us the win. Therefore again putting us that little bit further ahead.

KRS is not only about the sporting events, it is a chance for pupils to show case their individual talents outside of the classroom. Inktober, was a competition where pupils had to doodle something every day throughout the month of October. Competition was strong and the judging that took place by our Art Technician and in-house artist, Louise Pettifer. was tight. However our House captain and Head of school Alice won and secured more points for the Kiplings house. Her work was beautifully composed and her doodles really told a story of her journey through October.

House chapel takes places in January, and it is a great way to kick start the KRS houses having to come together and work as a team to create and present a chapel to the rest of the school. This year the theme has been “Trust and Faith’. The Kipling’s pupils’ captains lead the way by introducing the chapel. Pupils from each year group took part, spoke with confidence and represented their house proudly. Kiplings dominated this showing how well we work as a team, even overcoming a technical glitch on the first run through. This hiccup did not wobble the Kipling’s representatives and they handled the whole thing very professionally making sure to iron out any issues for the second run. The assembly was engaging, interactive, well-presented and extremely well delivered. Other win under our belts and more house points.

As house captain I could not be prouder of the effort of the whole teams this year. To ensure we hold the cup up at the end of this academic year and secure the overall win we need to start sweating the small stuff. KRS events run consistently through the term including houses picking up points for their house by the merits awarded in lesson time by individual pupils, subject events that take place along with Enrichment. There are so many more points to be won and to be in with a chance winning we need to make sure we are taking part in all of these to retain the fantastic lead that we do.

Kipling’s is an outstanding house to be part of, they have done themselves proud thus far and I am keen to see them continue to excel in everything that they do to end the year victorious…watch this space!

Mrs Clough
Head of Kiplings