Clarence House Newsletter – Autumn 2022

14 October 2022 - Clarence

It has been an absolute delight to join Wycombe Abbey this year and, in particular, to join Clarence House as Housemistress. I moved into Clarence over the summer holidays along with my husband, two children and two cats! It has been a privilege to get to know such a wonderful group of Upper Sixth pupils and getting to learn 98 names and 98 individual characters so quickly was a rather daunting mission that I embraced and am thoroughly enjoying.

Motunrayo and Georgia, the Clarence Chairmen, tell us about the experience so far:

Clarence joins all the Upper Sixth girls together as a House since the first year at Wycombe Abbey in Junior House, enabling pupils who had been in separate Houses to mix and foster new relationships, alongside strengthening current ones with previous senior House members. It is the perfect opportunity to get a taste of university life with newfound independence and learning essential life skills such as budgeting through weekly Ocado orders and organising laundry days with fellow House members. Aside from this, there are always exciting activities available, ranging from cooking challenges to karaoke and movie nights, courtesy of the Clarence House staff. Maintaining a balance between work and enjoyment is an integral part of the Clarence experience, which I have found is especially important during the challenging time of preparing for university applications and tests.

Motunrayo

The thought of entering into Clarence after spending five years in senior Houses was both daunting and exciting. During my time in Airlie, I created amazing bonds with the ten people in house who were also in my year, and lived with many people from LIV to LVI. Now in Clarence, I have the opportunity to reunite with my whole year and spend more time with my friends than I was previously able to. I am already loving my time at Clarence despite only being halfway through the first term due to the increased independence and freedom we all get to experience in this last stage of our journey at Wycombe. I am especially enjoying the chance to invite teachers to dinner in our Clarence Houses. Being able to show our appreciation for our teachers while forming connections outside of academics is such a fun experience which cannot be found elsewhere. Additionally, the flexibility of weekends is something I have really appreciated during such a stressful time of university applications. Having the ability to easily go home or remain in school where there are activities chosen by students to take your mind off work, is something we all value and enjoy about Clarence. We all know that House staff will support us in any way they can, as they want us to enjoy and cherish our time at Clarence as much as we do.

Georgia

We have had an exceptionally busy half term, not only with academic work and UCAS applications, but also filled full of all sorts of activities. One of my most memorable moments for this half term was watching some of the Clarence pupils perform the play ‘DNA’, directed by our very own Phoebe. The pupils had taken this production to the Edinburgh Fringe. It was an absolutely wonderful production and the whole cast and crew should be highly commended. Alongside all of this we have also had bingo nights, movies, quizzes and possibly the favourite so far, ‘Ready Steady Cook’. Nicola Stansfield tells us all about it:

I ask you, what would you cook with nothing but a random selection of ingredients and pantry basics? Well, this weekend, Clarence was able to have the privilege of re-creating the popular series ‘Ready, Steady, Cook!’. Without much more information, five Houses signed up for the most cutthroat competition of their lives. As it was revealed, the competitors found they were given ingredients chosen by members of the Sixth form team: Chicken, asparagus, Mars Bars, honey, aubergine, butterscotch flavoured Angel Delight, and… multigrain Rice Krispies? Reactions were confused, to say the least. With these, we had to build a two-course meal in an hour and a half. People were incredibly imaginative with their produce; we reconvened to have an array of soy-chicken, aubergine frogs and one multi-cultural banquet. The desserts category also had tough competition between butterscotch cheesecakes and brownies (and not so tough competition with Ettie and my multigrain Frankenstein). Winners were difficult to choose, as each meal was deserving of a Michelin star. The results are as follows: Ettie and I won the mains for stuffed garlic butter chicken, and House 1 won the desserts for their brownie. Even though they used Cocoa as a staple, I can confirm the brownie was divine. It was an incredibly enjoyable experience, with the judges eating well that night.

I am very much looking forward to the next half term and the privilege of working with such an exceptional group of pupils.