Shout Out To The House Shout

The annual House Singing Competition took place last week and Welsh House came away victorious after winning all three rounds.

The first round of the House Singing Competition happened in the Lecture Theatre at lunchtime. The solo round saw five talented youngsters from Burr, Everett, Orchard, Skipwith and Welsh Houses perform to their peers and teachers. From Burr, Robbie Rayne sang The Trumpet Shall Sound from The Messiah, a song that perfectly suited his incredible vocal abilities. Patrick Kenny, singing for Everett, performed Stars from Les Misérables before Grace Lucas’ fabulous rendition of Adele’s All I Ask. Immediately after, we heard from Michael Scanlon of Skipwith who performed To Build a House by The Cinematic Orchestra before Ben Atkin, who has recently suffered with tonsillitis, brought the house down with his original song My Dear. Ben won the solo round, but Grace Lucas was a very close second!

The ensemble round took place in the Sports Hall later on in the afternoon, with every single Shiplake Pupil in attendance. The first of these performances came from Burr, who put their own spin on Michael Jackson’s Man in The Mirror. After a little hustle and bustle, Patrick Kenny, Darcy Timms and Jade Miller came together to sing Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper for Everett. Then came the turn of Orchard house, who performed a medley of Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls and Ben E King’s Stand By Me. The standout voice in this piece belonged to Will Mandondo, who, as ever, impressed the audience with his sheer talent and ability. The last two ensemble performances came from Skipwith, who hilariously sang Our House and Welsh, who performed Ronan Keating’s When You Say Nothing At All. This presented the opportunity for Charlie Thomas and Bobby Howard-Jones to collaborate their amazing voices in one fantastic performance!

In the final round, which became more a battle of who can should the loudest, Burr sang Sweet Caroline, Everett sang Wave Your Flag, Orchard made waves with Don’t You Want Me Baby while Skipwith screamed September and Welsh House finished the proceedings with Take That’s Rule The World.

The House Singing competition endorses the Shiplake Seven as much as any other team activity, be it rugby, hockey or dramatic performance, as it encourages the pupils to think with a sense of comradeship and group belonging. It was clear to see from Welsh House’s whole house performance that they had strategised to utilise their strongest singers, while Burr and Skipwith House were clearly enjoying the scale of the performance and put their collective entertaining abilities to good use.

After a few minutes adjudication, the decision was made that Welsh House won every single round. Special mentions must go to Charlie Thomas, whose voice far exceeds his own expectation, and to Bobby Howard-Jones, whose unflappable coolness helped to lead the House to victory. Very well done to Patrick Kenny and Grace Lucas for their solo performances; to Ben Atkin for his creative song writing and to Robbie Rayne and Michael Scanlon for having the confidence and courage to stand in front of their peers and sing their hearts out.