House Performing Arts 2025

Warm up your voice, practise your steps and don your neon costume, because it’s that time of year again: House Performing Arts!

After weeks of rehearsal, Senior Boys’ and Girls’ Houses hoped to break a leg on the Centenary Theatre stage, competing with musical medleys to win the prestigious ‘Best Overall House’ award.

Our pupils were judged by Old Berkhamstedian Sid Sagar, an actor and writer based in London whose credits include ‘Cabaret,’ ‘Ballet Shoes’ (which many pupils attended last year) and ‘The Batman.’ As an alumnus, he fondly recalled these House events as “the things that made me feel like I belonged somewhere.” His dramatic experience and passionate interest in our pupil community made him the perfect judge of these performances.

Girls kicked off the day’s performances, with Holme’s punchy performance of the Black-Eyed Peas ensuring the audience was wide awake. Russell came away with the award for ‘Best Technical Elements,’ but it was Wolstenholme that clinched the overall victory with their talented soloists, infectious enthusiasm and an army of neon wigs.

Later in the day, it was the Boys’ turn to shine on stage. While Bartrum impressed with their novel umbrella-ography and Bees’ performance of ‘Let [Bees] entertain you’ was certainly not bumbling, Fry’s ultimately took the technical excellence prize for their coordinated performance of ‘Radio Ga Ga’. Cox’s claimed overall victory with a performance of ‘Holding out for a Hero’ that was certainly super- complete with lifts, piggybacks and even the dizzying rescue of a damsel in distress!

Audiences also enjoyed a host of duet and solo performances, from Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Lacy’ and Cynthia Erivo’s ‘Stand Up’ to a more light-hearted duet of ‘Breaking Free’.

Beyond the obvious fun of devising routines and performing with friends, House Performing Arts is a wonderful showcase of our pupils’ adventurousness and team spirit. Every pupil worked together within their house to try and make their performance a success: supporting friends with stage fright, motivating the less musical and encouraging everyone to step out with confidence.

We are very proud of every pupil who lit up the stage, and congratulations to our winning Houses!

Read reports here from our winning houses:

Lucy H, Wolstenholme House Captain

This year’s House Performing Arts was such an incredible experience for everyone in Wolstenholme. Our Jessie J medley was full of energy and fun, and we’re all still buzzing from the win!

It’s the first time Wolstenholme has won this competition since 2017, which made it even more special — especially for the outgoing Year 11s, who’ve been such a big part of shaping the House over the years.

Special shout-outs to El and Liv for running tech so smoothly, and to all the tutors and teachers who gave up time to help us rehearse and perfect every detail.

The best part has been seeing how much closer we’ve all become as a House. Everyone supported each other, worked hard and had so much fun along the way.

Go Wolstenholme!

-Lucy H

Ethan G-C, Cox’s House Captain

Cox’s were the winners of House Performing Arts, after huge efforts put in from around the house. Many were nervous but once we stepped on the stage the whole narrative changed; the boys put on an excellent display, but it wouldn’t have been possible without a few individuals.

• Firstly, Mrs Thackray played a huge role in our win – she was always there to aid Cox’s through the motions and the singing aspect too.
• Mrs Robinson also played a huge role amongst many other members of staff, all playing their parts to help Cox’s to perform the best and sing the best they possibly could.
• A special mention goes to Jaspar W who took on a solo performance in front on Centenary theatre which takes lots of bravery and courage – playing a huge part in our win due to the solo aspect on show.
• I would also like to say well done to the Cox’s technical team at the top of centenary who also played a huge role – Dylan M on sound and Tom S on lights, the two of them made our whole piece come together and so therefore it wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Some people in Cox’s thought that the time we had to rehearse and learn the lyrics was slightly too short as the competition came round rather quickly, but like I mentioned we all manged to put in our efforts to get the win. Moreover, we all put on an excellent display – when we all stepped onto the stage the picture changed and everyone sang their hearts out even from the wings, even if we weren’t entirely sure on a certain part each of us would help one another to stich it back up.

Some quotes from the house help to paint the picture of the magnificent and historical win:

JP said that “House music was a fun experience, I liked watching it and dancing too,”

Sam said that “House music was excellent, it was really fun to perform and watch others,”

Nico said that “House music was very fun, especially winning,”

Tom W said that “he enjoyed it because seeing everyone’s performances was really interesting,”

Finally, Will C said that he enjoyed house music because “it was exhilarating and was really fun.”

Overall, these quotes give us a deeper insight into the boy’s thoughts and feeling about house music; we can infer that many had a great time, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the staff and all who immersed themselves in the performance which helped us to achieve a great win which won’t be forgotten.

-Ethan G-C