Chevron

Housemaster: Nicholas Beeby

Nicholas Beeby (picture left) is the College's Head of Drama. He took over as Housemaster of Chevron in September 2008.

Chevron is a boys’ Day House.  Recently refurbished, the House is bright and well equipped and is located on a single, ground floor of the East Wing of the inner quad.

On entering the House in the Shell (Year 9) the boys share eight-man studies, ensuring they quickly get to know their fellow students and settle into College life.  The numbers sharing each study decrease as they move up the school, so that by the Lower Sixth all boys enjoy either single or two/three man studies.

Mr. Beeby's Chevron House report for 2008-09:

I cannot believe that my first year as Housemaster of Chevron has come to an end. I remember starting out in September with trepidation and it seems like only five minutes ago that I had to face the assembled hoard of Chevron boys on the first day of term as their new Housemaster. I won’t say that the year has been a walk in the park; there have been things to deal with along the way. Overall, however, I have enjoyed my first year enormously and have not found it nearly as difficult as I expected it to be, because the boys in the house are great company and they have made the year a real pleasure.

The other major contributing factor to the success of this first year has been the hardworking team of tutors in the house. I had worked with Chris Eustace during my time as a tutor in Chevron prior to taking on the House and knew what a dedicated and inspiring tutor he was. This year has been no different and I am enormously grateful to him for the care and time he has lavished on his tutees in the Remove. They have flourished under his guidance and we now see before us a set of fine young men, poised to achieve amazing results as they complete the final furlong towards their GCSEs. We are very sad to see him leave and wish him luck in the future and hope to see him again before long. His tutees will be left in the more than capable hands of Jan Leeper next year.

When I heard that Jan was stepping down as Housemistress of Martlet last year, I thought what a coup it would be if we could have her as a tutor in Chevron. How right I was! Jan has been an absolute tour-de-force over the last year and her tutees (the Fifth Form) have certainly benefited from her guidance; the relentless pressure on their academic performance however was often relieved by birthday cake during tutorials! She has boundless energy and enthusiasm for all things Chevron and I look forward to many more years of her tireless support.

Paul Statter is an incredibly loyal supporter of Chevron too. His tutees, the Lower Sixth, have gained much from his experience and his wisdom. This has been especially beneficial this year as they have embarked upon their extended projects and he has kept a steady eye on their progress, encouraging and cajoling as necessary. Olivia Robinson, the Drama gap student, has also been a key figure around the House. She has done her fair share of duties in the House and the boys have responded well to her friendly but firm style of boy-management! We will miss her too and wish her well.

We have also found an excellent support for the House in the form of our PFA representative, Hazel Biggs, mother of Rob in the Fifth Form. She has been boundless in her enthusiasm for the House and for the school and I am personally very grateful to her for her time and help over the year. We have had a few social events this year in the House and Hazel has always been there, bustling with efficiency!

We started in October with a drinks evening to welcome parents of the new Shell and to allow established parents to see the newly refurbished Chevron. Hazel spent the evening busy in the kitchen, while the Sixth Form all stepped up to the plate to be waiters for the night. I was very proud of the way they conducted themselves that night and had told them that I would take them out for dinner to say thank you. A few weeks later, we all went to Ask in Burgess Hill, where I felt slightly odd, sitting at a table with what looked like my seven sons!

The Chevron summer barbeque was a roaring success, thanks also to Hazel and the house tutors, but also a huge vote of thanks must also go to Jane and Martin Sutton who turned up with a barbeque and spent the whole evening cooking and serving. I was very pleased that so many of next year’s Shell were able to come along.

We started the year with eight new Shell boys and two new Lower Sixth. I have been tutor to the Shell this year and they have been a delight: hardworking and diligent - long may it continue! We were sad to lose Alex Burns from the Lower Sixth half way through the year as he moved to Eagle to board; we had benefited from his expertise in the Water Polo competition! James Wright has been a steadfast supporter of the House and a regular awardee of tuck shop vouchers for his excellent progress at every Challenge Grade review.

One of the first challenges of the year was the House Music competition. I was fired up after watching Last Choir Standing and announced to the House that we would be performing All By Myself and that we would sound like the choir I had just seen on the TV! Hmmm! My enthusiasm met with a lukewarm reception and the song choice was not wholeheartedly embraced. I later received a delegation saying that they would prefer to do Phil Collins’ Against All Odds. Cutting my losses and buying into their enthusiasm, I agreed. Unfortunately that went no better and a second delegation chose Michael Jackson’s Blame It on the Boogie. I’ve blotted our position in the final ranks from my memory, but was delighted with our entry in the ensemble category: Ben Quayle performing Muse’s Butterflies and Hurricanes, accompanied by Phil Greenwood on piano (a remarkable performance given that he had no sheet music), Ben Rudling, Jacob Orgill, Luke Cowley and Tim Moses.

We were more than redeemed however by our performance in the House Play competition. We came third overall (top boys’ House), with nominations for Best Play and Best Actor (Cameron Manson). Special commendations were awarded to Ben Quayle and Raffe Ahmed (who I was delighted to see on stage). Well done to Rob Biggs for his direction and to Olivia Robinson for her mentorship.

There were other dramatic highlights involving Chevron boys during the year – one of which has to be Ben Quayle’s Friedrich in The Sound of Music. This was matched by Jake Hurley’s Duke of Cornwall in King Lear, both here and in China. Both Jake and Jacob Orgill performed in The Caucasian Chalk Circle in the summer term too.

Another success was the PFA quiz evening in November with the Chevron team beating 16 other teams to romp across the finishing line in a magnificent second place! Thank goodness for Mr Lauder knowing who invented the hovercraft!

House Rugby matches were bravely fought by both the Juniors and the Seniors; but unfortunately we suffered from being one of the smallest houses at Hurst. Nevertheless, there were some fantastically spirited and brave performances and Chevron gave of its best. We managed to do better in the Rugby 7s than we did in the full Rugby competition!

We came third in the Senior House Tennis, had some excellent performances in the House Cricket and Hockey, won the Inter-house Golf tournament (well done Robin and Cameron) and the year culminated with Tim Moses being awarded the Tedder cup for the Shell pupil who has made an outstanding contribution to sport over the year. Sports Day is always great fun and I think we went into it this year thinking that we were a small House and wouldn’t win too much. However, Iain Lauder won the High Jump, Rob Biggs the Long Jump, Tim Moses smashed all records with the Javelin and there were many other respectable finishing positions throughout the day.

We entered the House Debating and the Top House competitions with great gusto. Mrs Turner was full of praise for the intellectual rigour with which our debating team bravely tackled the motion that ‘this house believes that the government should bail out failing financial institutions’. Phil Greenwood was particularly aggressive and was ably supported by Robin Bush and Ben Rudling, whom she felt showed great promise.

We have had four Prefects in the House: Michael Walker, Cameron Finlay, Phil Greenwood and House Captain, Robin Bush. Congratulations to them all. They did a great job deputising for me and the tutor team in the House. They also did a great job at Open Mornings when Chevron was on show to prospective pupils and their parents. I was delighted when one of the visitors commented to me on how nice it was to meet boys who were so obviously proud of their House.

We had four guardians in the House: James Sutton, Rob Biggs, Andy Campbell and Michael Walker. They received training and were on hand to lend a sympathetic ear to anyone with any problems they wished to discuss.

I was pleased with Chevron’s response to our appeals for funds for the Open Arms Orphanage in Malawi this year. All boys received envelopes for loose change and any other fundraising initiatives and Joe Webb, Hector Manly and Phil Greenwood made over £300 with their stall selling Pimm’s and strawberries at the Hurst n’Brie outdoor concert at the end of the year.

We are sad to see Tom Freeman and Eric Watts leave us at the end of this year. We wish them good luck for the future.

Next year, we will be larger in number and will come in line with the other day boys’ Houses which will help us to compete on a more even footing. This has been a great first year – here’s to an even better one next year.

Nicholas Beeby