Chevron

Housemaster: Nicholas Beeby

Nicholas Beeby (picture below, left) is the College's Director 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 twelve-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 2009-10:

This is my second year as Housemaster of Chevron House and I am proud to report that it goes from strength to strength. Not long ago, it was Hurst’s largest house until it was split in two to facilitate the creation of the new Hurst boy’s Day House of Crescent. Now our numbers are increasing again and the sense of community in the House is stronger than ever before.

The atmosphere in the House is friendly and supportive and everyone recognises the benefits of all pulling together. In many competitions we are able to punch above our weight and in others we struggle – this, I think, is how it should be. It means we are able to celebrate important successes but it also means that to achieve other goals we have to strive very hard indeed.

Sporting Chevron
The House Rugby competition shows Chevron at its best. We enter this competition with pluck and spirit and we do the best we can. Everyone enjoys the matches, but it’s the taking part that counts...! In the Water Polo competition, we slogged away and came near the bottom or at the bottom in both Senior and Junior sections.  In the House Hockey competition, we gave of our best, but still didn’t manage to come in the top three. However, our gung-ho attitude occasionally results in real success – Chevron won the Senior House Cricket competition (a fantastic result). In the whole school Cross-Country competition, three of our boys managed to come in the top fifty, so congratulations to Oliver Parish (26th), Andrew Campbell (30th) and Edward Colonna (49th). We came third in the House Golf competition and second in the Senior House Tennis competition.  Sports Day brought a handful of successes:  Andrew Campbell won the Intermediate 400m;  Daniel Stokes won the Junior 100m; Cameron Mackie, the Junior Shot; Phillip Greenwood, the Senior Hurdles and Timothy Moses was victorious in both the Intermediate Hurdles and the Javelin. In summary, a rounded Sporting Year with some excellent successes.

Creative Chevron
Drama is an area where we do very well (with no help from me). For our entry in the House Play competition, we drew the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. An excellent cast brought the myth up-to-date setting it in a modern-day war setting not dissimilar to Afghanistan. Kit Holliday and Jake Hurley were terrifying as King Minos’ two thugs! We received more acting commendations than any other House and the award for best costume. The major plaudit, however, went to Bertie Nehls, who won the award for the Best Newcomer. This award was founded  in memory of Sam Griffiths who made such an unexpected impression at last year’s House Play competition. Jonas Truneh took on the character role of Officer Krupke in this year’s musical, West Side Story.

We are not so hot at the House Music competition! Having said that, as always, Chevron’s ensemble piece was excellent this year, with Miss Bray kindly supporting Ben Quayle, Tim Moses, Ben Rudling and Jonas Truneh in their rendition of One Republic's ‘Apologise’.

We have three boys who are regular members of the Choir; however, I would like to see a few more boys singing in the future – we have a musical Shell coming in next year.

Academic Chevron
Academically, Chevron continfues to impress. The Shell and Remove, in particular, have a very workman-like attitude and they are regular receivers of the tuck shop vouchers, presented  at Challenge Grade reviews for a positive overall score.

As ever, I had an excellent team of Tutors attached to the House. Jan Leeper (Fifth Form Tutor) is a tower of strength and I genuinely don’t know what I would do without her; Thomas Asch is Tutor to the Remove and Richard Hurley is Tutor to the Lower Sixth. I was also delighted that Paul Statter kept his hand in and although he was an Upper Sixth form Tutor and attached to St John’s, he was regularly to be seen around the House. We were also lucky to have three gap students attached to the House over the course of the year: Ben Ward, Rebecca Kerr and Cassandra Bending. Anna Hopcroft was with us for a while at the beginning of the Michaelmas term, before she was commandeered by Martlet. Rugby Coach, Nick Harding replaced Anna in the House and has proved to be an invaluable support, always pitching in whenever he was needed.

Congratulations to the following for their successes at Prize Day: Edward Colonna, George Appleton, Daniel Stokes, Alexander Austin, Richard Walker, Bertie Nehls, George Bruce, Michael Walker.

Community Chevron
We had two Prefects in the House this year: Rob Biggs was House Captain and he was ably assisted by James Sutton. They were a terrific support to me and I am very grateful to them. They were passionate supporters of the House.

I was very pleased with the House ‘Guardian’ Scheme. We had a group of boys nominated as the first port of call for any members of the House who have things they wish to discuss that they might, initially, notwish to take to a member of staff. Charley Glauser and Alex Austin in the Shell; Ben Rudling and Luke Cowley in  Remove; Andrew Campbell and Cameron Manson in the Fifth form and Rob Biggs and James Sutton in the Sixth form. Individually, and as a team, they became an invaluable House resource.

Prior to this year’s school disco, we didn’t have enough time to go Bowling as we had in previous years, so Rob Biggs stepped up with the ‘Chevron Christmas quiz’. The whole House moved into the sparkling new conference room for what looked like a cross between The Weakest Link and a whist drive! Joshua Turier-Duerden, Andrew Campbell, Richard Walker, Jacob Orgill, Cameron Manson and Raffe Ahmed trounced the rest of the House! The gauntlet has been thrown down and this is set to become an annual (and hotly contested) event.

We put together an excellent argument this year in the House Debating competition, but unfortunately, Martlet’s was better! However, we did very well in the Junior Top House competition, just being pipped at the post by Pelican in the semi-final.

Mufaddal Najefy led the House successfully on all its Charity endeavours this year. At the Charity Fair we had three excellent stalls – Splat the Rat, a Treasure Hunt and a Ping Pong game and, I’m proud to report, were one of the Houses raising the most money for Charity on the day. At the Charity Day at the end of the year, Chevron boys undertook a range of activities, from gardening at Chailey Heritage and Green Circle, to painting at the Ditchling Rugby club and building a carnival float for a local school in the Art department. Bertie Nehls will spend time in Malawi this summer helping to build classrooms for a local school out there.

Chevron had a very satisfactory showing at the PFA quiz night with two tables, one of them coming second, for the second year running! Next year, we have got to try to beat the Red Cross table!

The end of year barbeque was an interesting affair this year. We were unable to hold it on the Chevron lawn (because of scaffolding supporting vital roof work) and, as two other Houses had events on the same evening, we went far away to Lowe’s field down by the former ccf building. It worked well as a venue not least because there was plenty of room to run around and it was a special bonus that we were able to welcome quite a few of next year’s new boys and their parents. The visiting burger van proved a huge success, thanks to Lefty and Jilly and whilst a combination of the rain and the England v. Algeria match brought proceedings to an earlier close than planned, it was – all agreed – a great evening.

Amongst my thanks and farewells, I must record that I owe a huge vote of thanks to Hazel Biggs, Rob’s mother, who has been the Chevron PFA rep for the past two years. She has been a great support to me and to the House. We are sad, this year, to say goodbye to Matthew Stephens, Cameron Manson, Matthew De La Pole, Andrew Campbell and Jacob Orgill at the end of the Fifth Form. All have contributed hugely to the life of the House during their time here and I wish them well for the future. Goodbye also to Phil Greenwood, Robin Bush, Cameron Finlay, Michael Walker, George Bruce, James Wright, Chevron boys in the Upper Sixth who are leaving the school this Summer. They will I know represent their school with pride as they progress through their further studies and careers.

Nicholas Beeby