It's the most wonderful time...of the year!

The week kicked off with three of our 6th form being awarded their full colours for rugby.  Really well done to Ollie M, Lucas and Ollie A.

We are now into the final two weeks of the term and things are busier than ever for the Hall boys.  On Saturday night, year 10 and 11 had their annual Christmas ball which went very well with all of the boarders attending and the vast majority of the day boys also there.

The year 10 and 11 boys ready for the ball

Today, several of the boys rehearsed for the senior school production of "Spamalot", which is on next week and looks like being another fantastic Kingswood production.  The 6th form watched the film of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and then "The Life of Brian" on Saturday evening, to get us in the mood for the show.

Hugo as "brave" Sir Robin

Ed, James and John in the tower (along with Nathan from Middle)

This evening we started our Christmas celebrations with the Advent service and dinner.  Veleslav and Freddy gave two of the readings in the service and then we were treated to a superb Chicken curry supper by our fantastic Catering Department. There will be lots more news and photographs coming soon about the success of the production, house entertainment and everything else that happens very soon. As they say: "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....!"

In our thoughts and prayers

Remembrance Service

On Friday all of the Kingswood Community attended the Remembrance Service which was held in the Sports Hall due to inclement weather rather than at the usual venue of outside the Chapel.  Tom from year 11played the Last Post superbly in what was a very moving and respectful service.

Tom playing the Last Post

House rugby

As it is the final week of the first half term, it is time for house rugby.  The year 10 team competed against Upper and Middle on Monday drawing with Upper but narrowly losing to Middle to come third overall on points difference.  The year 9 team went one better comfortably beating Upper before succumbing to a fine display from the Middle boys.  On Thursday it will be the turn of the senior players to see if we can retain the title we won last year.

I am surprised we lost with such a fine bunch of men representing us in year 9!

The year 9 team ready to pounce on any Upper mistakes

Some recent news

Congratulations to our Head of House who today passed his driving test.  Well Done Tom!

 ...and our year 9 boys demonstrate how to do a year group shot, "Hall" style!

Another couple of pictures of our year 9 boarders on the camping trip below.

Year 9 Camping trip

Our year 9 boarders spent Saturday night camping in the Forest of Dean under the watchful eye of Mr Davies, Miss Wright and Mr Chua.  As you can see from the photographs below it looks like the boys had a lot of fun.

Enjoying a snack after putting up the tents

Around the evening fire

Sabin and Matt rowing to safety

Pos and Antonio joined by Matt from Middle in the kayak.

Joe enjoying the refreshing water!

Welcome back to everyone

It's good to see that everyone has arrived back safely and have all settled back in to life in Hall.  We welcome our eight new year 9 boarders who are a great addition to the house.

Tonight was House Music.  Below are some pictures from the day which culminated in the performance this evening.  The boys sang and danced with the girls from Fonthill our sister house, a mash up consisting of the Weather Girl's classic, "It's Raining Men" before going into Queen's, "We Will Rock You" via "Albatross" (NOT the Fleetwood Mac classic!)
The performance of "Riptide" by Vance Joy was performed by a group of girls and boys from the houses beautifully sung by Issy and Ed - definitely the most moving performance of the evening.
Congratulations to Middle and Summerhill who won the overall competition.

Year 13 form Hall and Fonthill

The boys looking ready!

Our illustrious Head of House, Tom

The ensemble singing Riptide

"It's Raining Men"

House Entertainment

Enjoying the barbecue

Lico enjoys his ice cream

Ken the sumo!

Add caption

Mr B the limbo king

Our year 13 leavers

The final House entertainment took place last night.  After the disappointment of the cancelled Sports Day, we were able to celebrate the end of year when the sun came out in the evening.  Enjoy looking at the pictures above!

House Athletics

Sadly, the Senior Sports day had to be abandoned due to an horrendous downpour. However, before the heavens opened we were able to watch several of our boys run superbly in the 1500 and compete in the long and high jump.

Hall House barbecue

The sun shone today so we had a barbecue!  The boys then had fun chucking the rugby ball around in the garden after eating. It is great being able to make the most of the fact we can now open the house doors to a garden - another benefit of this great new boarding house.

Mr and Mrs H get serving!

Lico and Veleslav about to get their burgers

Parimal enjoys his burger!

KATS

Last night was the KATS (Kingswood Artistically Talented Students) awards evening for all of the students who study the creative arts subjects at GCSE or A Level.  Hall House was well represented as can be seen from the photographs below. What was particularly pleasing was it wasn't just the fact we had so many students there but also that we had a number of nominees and winners. Well done to everyone involved in one way or another.

The boarders about to set off with Mr H to KATS

All of the Hall boys who attended the evening

Best 6th Form Composition winner, George

Best Sixth Form Designer, Jamie

Welcome back

As the boys all arrive back for the final half term of the year, I thought you might like to see a couple of photographs from a barbecue that was held for the boarders just before our week's break. Hopefully the weather will improve enough for us to have a couple of Hall House barbecues over the next few weekends - look out for photographs.
This final half term is always very busy as year 11 finish off their GCSE examinations; year 12 finish their AS levels and then embark on work experience and the year 13 boys complete the last few weeks of their time at Kingswood.  I hope to post lots of photographs over the forthcoming weeks showing the boys involved in many events.  Please let me know of any specific achievements that your sons have been involved in so that we can celebrate it on this blog. Enjoy the summer.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of our Nepalese families.

Welcome Back

It is great to see everyone back for the final term of the 2014/15 academic year.  We are now into the "Examination" term. Hopefully all of the hard work and revision that the boys put in during the Easter break will pay off.
I have some good news about Jonathan in year 13 who represented Kingswood in the National School's Modern Biathlon at the beginning of the Easter holidays. 

The event took place at the Olympic Park in Stratfor, London, on Sunday 29th March.It was a fantastic opportunity to compete at such a prestigious venue along with the best young biathletes in the country. Jonny was placed 10th after his swim and despite strong wind and rain making running conditions difficult during his 1600m heat, he finished 11th overall in the Under 19 Boys category. Well done Jonny.  Let's hope you can lead the boys to triumph in the House swimming gala this Wednesday.

Jonny at the National School's Modern Biathlon