Soirée season is well underway with the Houses entertaining their friends and families in ever more creative ways, with comedy, dance, song all coming to the fore.
Forest
Forest House produced another very entertaining evening kicked off with the tutor band playing The Monkees’ classic I’m a Believer, with Mr Bustard, Mr Bailey, Mr Nuthall and Mr Hibbitt returning on bass, drums, clarinet and marimba respectively, and the usual performances by keyboardists Mr Stephens and Mr Johns. However, this year saw debuts from Mr Haviland and Mr Smith on ukuleles.
Other musical highlights were the house band with Oasis and Coldplay covers as well as an accompaniment to our Instrumental Competition winner Alan Yin singing Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.
Our three other instrumental winners, Frank Yao and Yan Mezhebytskyi on guitar, alongside Tom Bulmer on drums, gave fine solo performances.
A Barbershop group of three tutors and four pupils sang When You Wish Upon a Star and the Lower Sixth band played the Daft Punk classic, Get Lucky.
Live comedy performances were given by a wonderful synchronised swimming routine to Nessun Dorma by the M4s and two hilarious sketches by the Upper Sixth. The Fifth Form produced a video entitled Expectation vs Reality which brought the House down and the Lower Sixth crafted a brilliant – but somewhat disturbing – remake of Lionel Richie’s classic video Hello, starring Kamana Akinyanju and Ethan Quayle.
Mr Hibbitt, of course, sang live with video backing of Chumbawamba’s I Get Knocked Down giving the audience an insight into Forest house tutoring and the whole show closed with the House unison, a medley from School of Rock.
By Mr Jim Stephens
Raven
The Raven soirée was yet again a triumph, with the aptly chosen Oscars theme creating a glamorous and sophisticated atmosphere in Big School for all to enjoy.
The night kicked off with welcome drinks and a delicious meal, organised by the catering team, to set the mood for the entertaining evening that followed. Alice Taylor and Henri Muller expertly hosted the evening, with their charisma and humour guiding us smoothly through the acts.
Raven’s musical talents were evident throughout the evening, through various year group performances and individual acts. The M4’s rendition of Fame, accompanied by an impressive dance routine, perfectly commenced the evening, and the U4’s dance to All The Stars that followed was equally enjoyable.
Alice Lowe and Hanna Taylor in the U4 then provided a captivating dance routine to Mystery of Love, which they choreographed themselves. After a short interval, the Lower Sixth ensured everyone’s Oscars knowledge was up to date by arranging an informative and entertaining quiz.
The Fifth Form’s vocal talents shone through once again, with an entertaining acapella rendition of Since U Been Gone. Additionally, Meredith Briggs, who sang Seven Nation Army, and Ariana Menassa, singing Writing’s On The Wall. Both stunned the audience with their outstanding vocal talents and confidence on stage.
The Upper Sixth’s video was the highlight of the evening, providing their own highly amusing recreation of Oscar nominations for all-time best film. Daisy Palmer’s role as ET: The Extra-Terrestrial clearly impressed the audience as she collected the Oscar after an audience vote, amongst a competitive and varied category consisting of The Shining, Jaws, Wild Child, The Titanic and more.
To conclude the evening, the whole house came on stage to sing our unison, Baby One More Time for the final time, to commemorate our achievements at the house choral competition last September.
The soirée is the perfect opportunity for the whole house to come together and most importantly, to raise money for our house charity, The Survivors Trust. This charity endeavours to help victims of rape and sexual assault, and the evening raised an incredible £1,000. This was achieved through the raffle, which consisted of prizes ranging from a 60-minute massage to restaurant vouchers and hampers, as well as generous donations from parents.
Finally, the evening would not have been possible without the guidance of Mrs Williams and our Matron, Mrs Frost. Mrs Williams ensured everyone’s acts were up to standard, and Mrs Frost’s decorations made Big School look like the Oscars had truly arrived at Epsom College. With the help of our head of house, Alice Taylor, and the rest of the Upper Sixth, the evening was organised perfectly, and was thoroughly enjoyable for all who attended.
By Annie Hindley
White
White House kicked off the soirée season in style with a masked ball theme. The girls put on a fabulous show of music and dance, showcasing their amazing talents. Highlights included the KPop dancers and a revamped rendition of our winning House Song. It was a truly fabulous and classy evening, and we raised a significant amount of money for our house charity, shooting star chase.
By Miss Faith Smith
Holman
The retro-themed Holman Soirée took place on Thursday 6th February and Big School was brought to life by the beautiful hand-painted decorations by our matron, Tracy Morris, the hard work of the Catering department and the impressive lengths both boys and parents when to in choosing their costumes. Whilst the boys ordered outfits from prison costumes to 1980s tracksuits, parents often relied on classic items from the back of their wardrobes!
On arrival, guests sat down to a delicious meal of chicken katsu curry and black Holman gâteau (it couldn’t be Forest gâteau for obvious reasons!) and then enjoyed an astonishing variety of performance that showcased the amazingly talented and the simply amazing! The M4 boys impressed with a Queen number, the Fifth Form showed off their dancing skills, and the U4 tested the retro general knowledge of the audience with a quiz. Big School was rocked by the two outstanding house bands featuring Nick Wong, Seumas MacLeod, Curtis Day, Bertie Gathercole, Jacob Stiegler, Simon Cheng, Marcus Barrett and William Lovatt. Head of House, Waleed Alzarooni on his violin played excellent duets with Curtis and Upper Sixth tutor, Mr Gordon Watson, who was assured on the clarinet in spite of an eight-year self-imposed hiatus. Bertie Gathercole played a super piano solo and Waleed (again) wowed the audience with a solo. He will be sorely missed next year due to his amazing talent and his hard work he puts in to making the music at every Soirée a success! The evening closed with the funny and professionally edited Sixth Form videos. It was a lovely evening and a great chance for the whole Holman community to come together.
By Mr Chris Filbey
Rosebery
On Thursday 13 February the Rosebery girls hosted their soiree. The U6th had decided upon the theme of Valentine’s and the atmosphere was set by Bev in Catering and her team, with a menu and decorations that enhanced the mood.
As dinner concluded the entertainment began. It was an unforgettable evening, ranging from a rendition of ‘Take Me Out: The Staff edition’ from our L6, to a series of diverse solo performances, with a stunning cover of Adele’s ‘Turning Tables’ from Lily Moram. The occasion commenced with an engaging poem from our M4’s, called ‘Cupids Message’, which truly reflected the Valentine’s theme. This was followed by numerous captivating dance performances, and a sequence of comical videos from the 5th Form’s “Love Really Hurts Without You” and U6th’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’. The night ended with the U6th’s leavers video; a compilation of photos from across their five years at the College. A really memorable evening, with a great deal of warmth and humour.
By Raveena Dhami
Murrell
After meticulous planning, on Friday 7 February Murrell’s ‘Through the Decades’ themed soirée took place. The homemade centre pieces, balloon arch and large posters filled with memorable moments in each decade created an electric atmosphere. With the girls wearing costumes from spice girls to rappers, as well as parents dressed as Teletubbies and hippies, everyone was involved.
After a delicious meal provided by the catering department, the prepared acts took place. From the choreographed U4, L6 and M4 dances, to the 5th form lip sync battle, the audience were indulged in variety and originality. Some memorable solo performances included Daisy and Chiara’s angelic duet, Maddie’s energetic solo, Katie’s soulful singing, as well as Izzy and Holly’s flawless flute duet. The night emphasised the community and close bond between the girls in the house and it really was a night to remember.
By Daisy Collins
Wilson
Wilson hosted another great soirée this year, with the theme being Disney. Main Hall was filled with Disney themed decorations and everyone looked amazing in their costumes, from Cruella de Ville and Dalmatians, to Alice in Wonderland and Disney princesses.
The M4s began the entertainment with a brilliant dance, to a mashup of Disney songs, that was perfectly coordinated. The U4s displayed their outstanding ‘Break My Stride’ music video, which they all seemed to have a lot of fun creating at various locations around the school. A unique dance was presented to us by the 5th form, who choreographed an incredible glow in the dark dance, which was extremely effective. Everyone loved this imaginative idea! The L6th also produced an impressive music video, to ‘We’re all in this together’, from ‘High School Musical’, keeping to the Disney theme. They successfully made the video enjoyable and funny, which portrayed their close friendships. The U6th presented a few videos of jump scare reactions, which made our guests laugh, as well as videos and photos from our time in Wilson from M4 to U6th. However, our main performance was a lip sync battle to a number of classic songs, which we all had so much fun creating and showing to everyone. We also had some great solo performances from Holly Hewins, Nushi Powell, Stasy Kozhokina, who all sang fantastically and Raquel Williams, who showed off her incredible dance moves. Also, we all joined in a ‘Heads and Tails’ quiz and were entertained by Maddie Luckyn-Malone and Claudia Hess with their breakfast comedy sketch.
Throughout our evening we had a photo booth to raise money, as well as glow sticks and raffle tickets for sale in order to raise as much money as possible for our house charity, Momentum. Maria Stoney and Louise Wall kindly came to speak to the house about the charity, Momentum. As a house, we are very proud to donate to this charity and despite being the smallest house, we managed to raise over an astonishing £2011! All of this money made from our soirée will go directly to our wonderful house charity.
We ended the evening with a rendition of our energetic house unison, ‘Saturday Night’s Alright’. All of our guests loved hearing our unison, performed in the choral competition, one more time.
Lastly, the soirée was put together perfectly with the help from the catering team, to provide us with delicious food, and our technical team led by Mr Bishop, who did a great job with all of our lighting, sound and projection. A huge thank you to the whole house for coming up with such fantastic acts, as well as all the tutors and Mrs Wilson, our housemistress, for helping everyone with their performances and their continual support to the entire house. It was a memorable evening for everyone!
By Sophie Lonnon
