Memories of Walhampton
What made Walhampton special - by Ben Teale
- Houses (named after explorers: Grenfell, Shackelton, Mallory and Scott) –
- ‘matrix organization!’ no physical common room as at public school but used for many administrative issues, sports competitions, reading competitions, house plays etc.
- Running score of points kept for the house (just as in Harry Potter), which dictated where you were in the morning line up and how quickly you got to meals! I can’t remember how the system worked but points would be subtracted for being late and for misbehaviour – there must have been plus marks as well for academic achievement and sports.
- The house master / mistress provides another point of contact with the staff – less involved with academic matters and more with personal issues and discipline.
- Each house has a definite personality and one felt a strong sense of belonging and loyalty to one’s house.
- Beautiful house and grounds – woods, lakes, fountains, statues etc. Special places where we would play and ‘hang out’ – The ropes, the gypsy caravan, the sand pit.
- Crazes – card games, trump cards, balsa aircraft etc
- Morning chapel – stirring hymns!
- Sports – rugby, cricket, athletics, etc.
- Music – everyone in the first year played the violin
- Hobbies – sailing, rowing, fencing, judo, archery, shooting (airguns), bird watching, model aircraft, riding, pet room, canoeing, canoe building, etc.
- The adventure playground – death slide, high swing, and aerial rope walks between trees, scrambling ropes etc.
- Art & Crafts – painting, pottery, woodwork, metalwork
- Summer camps – a week away after exams in the summer to multiple locations. The smaller children would simply go camping near the school and have daily activities and visits but the older ones would go to Wales, Scotland, France etc
- The Burrard Society – informal lectures / slide shows etc given to sixth form by well-known academics / explorers / astronomers etc.
- School play
- Saturday night film
- The library (huge) with a reading room and daily newspapers.
- After lunch rest – half an hour silent reading in our dormitories before games.
- Pupil organized disco in the gym (above a certain age)!
- British bulldogs and other unofficial games that virtually everyone would join in with without any organization on the part of staff.
- Afternoon tea and buns!
- Patrol leaders (prefects) – each house was divided into patrols with a patrol leader and a second. There was also a head boy of course. However, these were always appointed by the school not elected, as is the custom in US schools.
- Pioneering – helping to keep the grounds in good shape: mainly involved picking up dead wood and building a huge bonfire that we used to light on the night we would get back from half term in the winter term. The head master used to put on an amazing fireworks display and we would all have hot dogs around the bonfire (it always used to coincide with Guy Fawkes night).
- Fire place in the main hall which would always be lit in winter and the head master would always be there to welcome people that had been out for the week-end.
