Woodard

Housemaster: Dan Higgins

Named after the College’s founder, Woodard is a boys’ Day House and occupies the original site of one of the College’s oldest Houses, Fleur de Lys. Situated right in the heart of the school, it provides excellent access to the Classroom & Science block from one side, and the Dining Hall and Chapel from the other.   The House accommodates up to 40 boys, 10 in each year group.  In the first two years the boys share large open day rooms, helping them to quickly bond with their peers and form good friendship groups.  In the Fifth form there are three rooms with 3 or 4 sharing, whilst in the Lower Sixth the boys room in pairs. 

Woodard is lucky to have a large separate social room, kitchen and superb ICT facilities (the House is fully WI-FI).  The Lower Sixth also enjoy their own social area and kitchen.    

Dan Higgins has been the Housemaster in Woodard since its inception in 2004.  He believes one of the fundamental parts of being a member of the House is committing to giving everything a go, at least once.   You never know what you’re missing until you give it a try.   As the ex-Head of Design & Technology he has had a large input into the development and growth of the House, whilst still enjoying his teaching in the department and maintaining his love of sport.    He is a rugby coach, kayak and climbing instructor and keen mountain biker.   He is married to Helena, also a teacher at the school and has two daughters in the Pre-Prep.

Woodard House Report 2007- 8

by Jonathan Gartside, House Captain

Michaelmas Term

For me, one of the best parts of the whole year was seeing Woodard, for the first time, full from Shell to Lower Sixth.  It was a great feeling to know that I had been part of the House from the very beginning. Much has changed over the last four years with pupils joining and leaving and members of staff moving Houses however, it's been great to be part of it and eventually help with the management as the House Captain.

As ever, we were straight into the House Cup events.  Moved from the Lent term to Michaelmas, the first major event of the year was House Music. Judging by Woodard’s past performances, this was not a popular event, despite our talented musicians and scholars, nevertheless with bigger numbers and a confident Shell year we thought we were in for a better ‘shout’ this year.  Clearly not! The first half of the competition was the ensemble.  Even though we had talented legends such as Jack Birthwright, Dan Urben and Alex Gatton , who had many last minute break and lunchtime practices we failed to impress enough. The House shout of  ‘Yellow Submarine’ was highly rated and the secret props worked well too, but just not in the adjudicator’s opinion.    However, in the House Solo Music competition, which Josh Hammond, Alex and Dan entered, Dan won in the brass section with his saxophone. A truly professional performance. Straight after half term, practices started for the next House event, a new one: Drama. It was great to see Dan Costello, Will Old, James Rothwell, Phil Dugard, Josh Hammond, David Veitch, Chris Savory, Alister Dell and Mike Zhang all giving their best ‘Oscar-winning’ performances in the Bury.  Yet another House event was squeezed into this already busy term; Debating.  I have to say I take my hat off to anyone who can stand up in front of a crowd and talk, with passion, about a subject known to them only 24 hours beforehand, therefore my thanks and admiration go to Dan Costello, Dan Powell and Chris Savory for their sterling efforts.  With House Rugby a bit of a mud bath, the focus sporting event of the term was Cross Country. It was great to see so many keen sportsmen jumping forward into the competition: Mike Vallone, Cameron Forster, Phil Dugard, Ben Parrish, Josh Hammond, Dan Urben, Ali Dell, Andy King, Dan Powell and James Sleep. Well done to the whole team for all their blood, sweat and tears!

Just before we broke up for Christmas we had a very successful trip bowling with Chevron.   Mr Eustace beat all the staff although all credit must go to James Turzynski for again achieving the highest score - a repeat of his winning performance when we were in Remove.

Lent Term

Lent saw two House sporting events; Hockey and Water Polo. Even though we did not win either, the Woodard spirit was alive with ‘no-one on the bench’.  Unfortunately, we were as unsuccessful in the Top House Competition.  Despite making it to the finals again, this year we were robbed of the title by a very academic Red Cross. The major school production of ‘Godspell’ was a huge accomplishment and gained rave reviews. Being part of the music myself was challenging however very enjoyable and praise should go to Josh Hammond and Marnix van Gelderen for their parts in the production too. Module results in Woodard, on the whole, were at last something to celebrate and shout about.  First-class results right from Remove through to Fifth and Lower Sixth.  Special mention should go to Chris Savory and Michael Zhang for their superb grades.

Summer Term

The Summer Term was short and sweet yet as usual it saw the most House events - House Swimming, Tennis, Cricket and Golf to name but a few.  Special mention should go to the Junior Tennis team consisting of Jack Dunckley and Dom Andrew who won every match and took our first Sports Cup. 

Towards the end of the term, the Shell left for the annual weekend away.  Leaving straight after Chapel, the bus was loaded and we set off for Blacklands Farm. Uncanny was certainly how it felt returning after 4 years, this time to help rather than experience the outdoor life!   It was fantastic to see so many smiles throughout the weekend considering the shocking British summer weather!   Rain did not stop the fun with everyone giving the various activities of climbing, abseiling and kayaking a go. Particular mention must go to Will Old for dropping the minibus keys to the bottom of Ardingly reservoir instead of handing them back to Mr Higgins after he performed an Eskimo roll!
The combination of Prize and Sports Day was very successful and enjoyable. Our sportsmen competed well but had some way to go if they were to match the number of academic prizes won by Woodard pupils in the morning. Over half the members of the House were awarded prizes! 
 
Within Woodard prizes were also being dished out. Congratulations must go to Dan Urben for winning the coveted House Pool competition and for Andy King, Dan Powell, Stu Thompson, James Sleep, Jack Birthwright, Chris Savory and me for gaining our House Colours. Special mentions should also go to Jack Dunckley for appearing on the BBC’s ‘Gardener’s World’ having been the youngest exhibitor at the Malvern show and Stu Thompson, a talented designer, who created an extraordinary swinging garden chair for his major AS DT project.  I wonder whether it was down to our Housemaster being a teacher of Design and Technology that 6 out of 10 of my year from Woodard took the subject and all gained high grades!

As the year ends and I move to St John’s I offer my congratulations to every member of Woodard for great performances across the board in their exams, particularly the Fifth Form where 55 of 76 grades were A or A*.   
 
I end with thanking Mr Higgins for all he has done too in making the past four years of my time in the Senior School so happy and enjoyable.  Whether it was standing and motivating us on a freezing cold rugby pitch, subtly including us in House events (without us knowing until the day before!) or telling us off for keeping our rooms like bomb sites, he has been everything a Housemaster should be, encouraging, fair and most of all, someone with a great sense of humour who we could all look up to. I wish him, Helena and the girls well for the future, and can’t wait to visit as an old boy.