Lydiard House News

2018 has been another busy year for Lydiard House. It all started back in February when we got together for House Sports' Day. Our new House Executive Team made up of Alex Vermeulen, Charis Ripley, Emily Woodward, Jacob Patchett, Lucy Banks, Tegen Bishop and Bex Hughes were determined to lead the House well for the year. It really was a day of mixed emotions. We certainly looked and sounded the part and there were many highlights sprinkled across the program.

Senior Summerfest kicked off in late February sunshine. Competing in both Volleyball and Touch our teams were well represented by a range of senior students. Their contributions were all incredibly valuable and our house spirit of inclusion and giving everything a go was shown with several people jumping in and competing in games that were relatively new to them.

Year 9 camp time arrived, and went, with our camp in Term 1 postponed due to a major cyclone. When 9LRDS and 9LHMM finally went on camp in the first three days of Term 2, the weather was much colder. With hair straighteners left behind and their Instagram accounts switched off they dragged their swandris out of the garage and headed into the mountains for three days of wilderness living.

Senior Winterfest was next and while we were able to field impressive and talented teams we struggled with numbers. Still, as is said with great frequency, it’s not over ‘til it’s over.

In the Senior Public speaking competitions Lydiard House was well represented with excellent speakers in most categories and they achieved fine results. Unfortunately, we did not have speakers in two categories and this dropped the overall results.

Our choir was up to their usual highly polished standard thanks to the work of Caitlin and Ms Himiona. Their performance was very impressive yet only finished in 5th place, which was disappointing given their performance on stage.

Junior Winterfest was the next cab off the rank. Our Football and Netball teams were very well subscribed and we had a great talent pool to select teams from. We competed exceptionally well in both codes and demonstrated a mix of sublime skill and raw power.

Next on the calendar was Film Fest. The specified elements required the film making teams to create a movie dealing with the genre of “a fish out of water”. Our entry was awarded the “People’s Choice Award” and was very funny - who will ever forget Mitchell barking at the mailman, or JC lamenting how hard it was to transition from a cat to a person!

We still have the Junior Quiz to be completed for the year and we expect this will be a highly competitive event for Lydiard House as always.

On behalf of the House I would like to thank Mr Cowey for his tireless efforts in supporting both our students and staff as our Dean. Our Executive has worked hard to ensure that the House has been represented in all events and they have taken a leading role in most competitions. I would like to take this chance to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday so we can arrive fresh and ready for 2019.

Ian Johnson

Head of House