Wilson

House Colour: Yellow

Who’s Who?

Head of House – Mr K Allman

Wilson Tutors 2024-25

Year 7 - Mr G Evans

Year 8 - Mrs A Copeland 

Year 9 - Mr R Kettle & Mrs L Budgen

Year 10 - Miss M Cahill

Year 11 - Mrs D Jackson

Year 12 - Ms F Langstone

Year 13 - Mrs H Ockwell

Wilson House was one of the first four houses in the early days of the school. Wilson House is named after Bishop Roger Wilson who was Bishop of Chichester from 1958 to 1974. He was a brilliant classicist, a modest and unassuming man with an abiding interest in people.

What is Wilson House like?

We are a caring house with a real sense of family and friendship. There are rarely fallings out as we stick together and support each other.  Wilson means family and that means no one gets left behind. ‘Aureus est gentis’, latin for ‘family is golden’ is our House colour. Our House emblem is a sunflower and each year our Year 11’s present each other with sunflowers at their leavers’ assembly with a note attached as a leaving present.

The House charity that Wilson supports is the ‘Mombasa Children’. We have sent medical supplies, sponsored children to be able to attend school and bought equipment. The House has Skyped with the children in our House assembly. Our link is through the charity based in Rustington. We hope in the future to send Wilson House pupils to visit the school.

Wilson House 2023-2024

It’s always been one of my favourite aspects of my job to look back over the last year and see what the members of Wilson house have been up to, and this year is certainly no different – needless to say everyone has been very busy, so I am very excited to celebrate their achievements!

This year’s 7 Wilson are one of the politest and most easy-going groups that I have had in my time as Head of House – they even managed to beat last year’s Year 7 when it came to finding their own way around school at the start of the year. The Isle of Wight trip created some long-lasting memories with yet another victory in the Headhunters laser tag (now six years undefeated). Since then, members of 7 Wilson have thrown themselves into all aspects of school life; as a group they were heavily represented in the house drama playing some of Snow White’s dwarves, and several members of the group were also involved in Fruition. It has been great to see them all making the extracurricular activities available and can always be found at various after school and lunch time clubs. Mrs Copeland has been keeping a steady eye on all of this in her first year at Luffa – I know they are all grateful!

Year 8 are now firmly settled in to life at Luffa and again it has been pleasing to see so many of the group getting involved in events wherever they can. They certainly seem to be one of the sportiest groups that we have had in Wilson for quite a while with lots of enthusiastic volunteers for interhouse competitions and also representing the school in rugby, football, cricket, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Just like last year, it was also very pleasing to see several of the group taking leading roles in the house drama, continuing their progress from Year 7. Several of 8 Wilson also wrote short stories which were then featured in a book called ‘The Glitch’, so undoubtedly, they are quite a varied group when it comes to their talents. 8 Wilson have now seen off Mr Keane and Mr Tunthawa as form tutors, but I have no doubt Mr Kettle and Mrs Budgen will keep them in shape next year.

Terrifying though it might seem, 9 Wilson are now halfway through their journey at Luffa! Fortunately, they have remained as calm and chilled out as they were in Year 7, with all of the credit for keeping them on an even keel going to Miss Cahill. It has been very pleasing to see so many of the group getting involved in wider school activities such as Fruition, and continuing their sporting successes too. I have no doubt they are all ready and raring for their GCSEs next year.

Year 10, under Mrs Jackson, have now embarked on their GCSEs and it has been rewarding to see them flourish under their new responsibilities. This was also on display during their work experience, and I was lucky enough to go and visit many members of the form out and about and to hear lots of glowing feedback from their placements. It has also been lovely to see many of the group giving time over to help the younger year groups, either through mentoring or as reading buddies every week in the library. The Duke of Edinburgh award also continues to be popular, with a fair few of the group giving up their weekends to traipse around the countryside. I have also had the pleasure of rewarding some individual achievements in the first round of house colours with Isaac McDonald, Hayley Martin, Amaya Misson-Williams and Eva Wilkinson all deserving recipients for their hard work.

Finally, we move on to Year 11, who we now must sadly say goodbye to. It seems like I say this every year, but yet again 11 Wilson were a remarkably calm and easy tutor group who gave me very little bother whatsoever – whilst there was certainly some cajoling required when it came to revision time, I never had to worry about them getting up to something they shouldn’t be! For Mr Evans this was also something of an achievement as he took yet another tutor group from Year 7 through to Year 11 which is a testament to his own commitment and patience – I thank him for all his hard work to keep the group going in the run up to their exams.

Finally, I have enjoyed spending time with the Sixth Form team where possible – Max Wright and Isla Kavanagh-Brown only joined the school in Year 12 but have been invaluable house captains, assisting with all the generic admin I have forced them to do, as well as assisting with the house drama and also the Christmas Fair. The fair itself raised a record-breaking amount of nearly £1,500 this year, with all money going to the Friends of the Mombasa Children.

As I write, Wilson are currently second in the house cup and first overall in the school games trophy so there are still some loose ends that may yet be tied up positively this year!

On a personal note, after this year I will be handing the reins over to Mrs Duke for 2024/25 and I look forward to seeing how Wilson continues to flourish under her leadership – I have no doubt she can only take the house on to brighter and better things.

Mr Keith Allman, Head of Wilson House