Martlet

Housemistress: Kathren Lea

Kathren Lea was appointed Martlet Housemistress from September 2009. 

After leaving school she joined the Royal Air Force and trained to be an engineer; this provided the grounding for her understanding, and love, of physics.

After leaving the RAF she gained a BSc (Hons) specialising in biomechanics and, later still, returned to university to train as a teacher, gaining her post-graduate teaching qualification (PGCE) in Science.

Kathryn first met her husband, who teaches Media, 13 years ago and they now have two 'wonderful children' who both attend Hurst Prep school.

 She writes "I joined Hurst  in 2008 as a teacher of  Physics. Physics is a wonderful subject to teach. Not only do you carry out many exciting experiments, but you also have the excitement of knowing that the principles of physics underpin everything that happens in our universe. I feel very fortunate to be a teacher of physics and now privileged to be a Housemistress. I am greatly looking forward to my first year with the girls."

Kathren's role within the house is to encourage all to be involved in house life and to develop consideration and respect for others.  Martlet is a girls’ Boarding house which can accommodate up to 60 boarders and is situated just opposite the main entrance of the College, set in its own private garden.

In the first two years girls share rooms up to a maximum of 6 which enables them to quickly get to know their peer group.  In the Fifth form there are 2 or 3 girls sharing and in the Lower Sixth the girls enjoy having a single room.  In 2008 the adjacent sanatorium was converted in to the Martlet Annexe, in which there are 9 LVI rooms.

 Martlet house has plenty of space for the girls to socialise or have their privacy if they so wish and its’ success in all fields is largely due to its sense of team spirit, in part created by its more detached position from the school.  There are kitchens on each floor and there is a dedicated computer suite.

The Martlet House Report for 2009 - 10

Martlet has a positive and welcoming atmosphere in no small measure thanks to our new Housemistress, Mrs Lea and our highly competent and talented House Captains, Jody Jones and Hattie Sykes.

This year, every Martlet girl has been involved in at least one of the many extra-curricular aspects of Hurst and, with each contributing of their best, there is a fantastic House spirit pervading everything we do.

House Music is a huge event at the beginning of every year and everyone threw themselves into it. All the girls sang ‘I Will Survive’, whilst performing an amazing dance routine, created more or less spontaneously with contributions from the whole House. The ensemble also did exceedingly well with their rendition of ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley, and so Martlet came a very respectable 3rd against some very professional competition.

The House Drama competition was another huge success for Martlet. Led by Milly Gifford, a group of girls, with Jemima Henstridge-Blows in the leading role, performed ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ incredibly well, and we managed to win ‘Best Use of Voice’. The cast worked very hard indeed and it was wonderful to see them so confident and in control whilst on stage in front of the whole school.

Our Debating and Top House teams have gone from strength to strength in the past few months. The Top House team of Hattie Sykes, Hattie Randall, Mollie Weller and Lizzie Freeman came 2nd overall, beating all the other girls’ Houses and only narrowly being defeated in the final by a very strong Red Cross team. The Debating team, organised by Mollie Gifford, was also one of our strongest, and defeated all the other girls’ Houses  only to be stopped in the semi-final by a strong Eagle House team.

The Guardian team of Jody Jones, Hattie Sykes, Natasha Esson, Jasmine Woollven, Rosie Ryan, Emma Mcnally, Lizzie Freeman, Holly Sargeant and Sophie Clowes have all contributed significantly this year, dealt effectively with any issues they have faced and certainly helped to strengthen the positive and  happy atmosphere within the House.

Martlet has excelled in all aspects of Sport this year. We began with victories in both Junior and Senior Water Polo. We fielded the biggest team ever and everyone got involved in one way or another to support the House. We also won the Senior Hockey Competition (not least thanks to the impressive talent of Lara Rogal), beating Pelican in a close fought final. Later in the year, we won the Junior Rounders, narrowly beating Shield in the final and achieved success on Sports Day, winning the Junior girls and also winning overall. Congratulations to Emily White for winning the Senior Victrix Ludorum Cup and our thanks to all Martlet sports stars including, of course, members of Upper Sixth who came back and supported us.