A group of intrepid English students met before a sizeable audience to compete in the annual English Department House events. It was an evening of two halves, beginning with the Creative Writing competition. This year's theme was Science Fiction. The Lower School was ably represented by Saul Auty and Charlotte Toptani. Both read beautifully, but in the end, Charlotte's tale of a bullied cyborg clinched the win for Sargents. James Douie's cleverly structured story saw Sargents win again in the Year 10 and 11 category, whilst Sam Wilmot's entry for Chaytors just pipped Georgia Hall to the post to win both the Sixth Form Prize and the overall winner's trophy.
Following a leisurely interval, it was the turn of the Spoken English semi-finalists. The themes of 'Time' and 'Family' were the most popular. Dales were again successful, securing the winning places in Years 7, 10 and the Lower Sixth (Albert Slade, Will Hambly and Seb Slade respectively). Chaytors and Palmers were robustly represented by the winner of Year 8 (Philip Habib) and the Upper Sixth (Ben Harvey). However, it was Albert's Slade's entertaining insight into his family which secured the overall win. It was a tribute to his enthusiastic, extemporaneous delivery that he fought off such stiff opposition (including an impassioned plea for animal welfare from Lizzi Schulz of the Upper Sixth).
