Brooke House

Welcome to Brooke House!

"As Head and Deputy Head of Brooke House, we see our roles as supporting the pupils and tutors in their endeavours - to celebrate their successes and to help them develop resilience in the face of challenges. The course of learning is not linear; through a pupil’s school journey there will be highs and lows, but in being part of Brooke House a pupil is never alone in this experience. Brooke house provides a ‘community within a community’ where we foster positive relationships built on integrity, trust, and ambition. We value pupil voice, being part of a team and having opportunities to lead. We also strive to provide a vehicle for pupils to explore their passions and demonstrate the values of being a Norwich School pupil upholding and fostering a collective and empathetic environment – sharing in each other’s achievements and working together to support one another."







"My name is Peri Ulgen and I’m the House Captain of Brooke House and I joined Norwich School in Lower 6. I’m studying biology, chemistry and geography and I am planing to attend university for marine biology. I am also an academic scholar, a member of Erpingham society (a club where students present on any issue that interests them) and REACH (our schools cultural appreciation society)."

House History

Brooke House takes its name from the legendary ON Sir James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak. He attended the School from 1815 and was reputedly “completely unreceptive to the idea of learning”. He allegedly hid Head Master Valpy’s cane under floorboards, only discovered after his leaving. He went on to carve out a career initially in the army. After this was cut short by injury, he used a substantial inheritance to buy a boat and sail to Borneo, bound for adventure. Here he exerted his influence and force of personality over pirates, headhunters and rebellious tribes, ruling over Sarawak for 27 years.


Brooke House is a welcoming and inclusive body of pupils and tutors alike. Not only are they caring and supportive of peers and colleagues, but they are also highly motivated and competitive! Members of Brooke House are encouraged to thrive and achieve, both academically and within the co-curricular sphere, and also to uphold and foster a collective and empathetic environment within the House – sharing in each other’s achievements and working together to support one’s endeavours.

House News

By Eleanor Lewis March 4, 2025
In keeping with Norwich School tradition, Valpy House led the celebrations of Shrove Tuesday by serving pancakes to the school at breaktime. Pupils in the house are encouraged to bring in toppings that they think everyone will enjoy. The traditional lemon & sugar option is still a big seller, while the more adventurous tastes could add bananas, strawberries, cream, marshmallows, and this year's new trend was biscoff spread. We sold almost 150 pancakes this year, with the proceeds raised going to Action Cancer UK. There was also a large bag of leftovers, which were donated to a local foodbank.  Also at lunchtime we held a pancake flipping contest, with the winner flipping their (plastic) pancake 44 times in 30 seconds. Can you beat that?
By Eleanor Lewis March 4, 2025
As part of a FONS joint bid, board games have been purchased for the 4th Form and Repton House to encourage team building and friendships! These games are in the 4th Form office for tutees to use and some have been allocated to Repton House tutor groups! We have already seen that playing these games builds skills in teamwork, collaboration, healthy and friendly competition, strategy and problem solving as well as being a useful tool to help pupils communicate. Relationships between peers and tutors have been consolidated through game play as is evident from the photographs taken. During important conversations a game can act to put pupils at ease; to start a conversation; to distract and to comfort. During a busy school week, playing a board game during social times or tutor times can act as a stress reliever allowing pupils to relax and have fun which we believe will improve their overall wellbeing. Finally, we have seen that all pupils in the tutor groups get involved, irrespective of ability, gender or friendship group. We believe we are therefore, promoting inclusivity and engagement and enhancing the overall sense of community. In the future, we plan to add to our store of board games. Andrew Rowlandson runs the Board Games club. At the same time as we applied for the bid, he asked parents for donations, which too bolstered our supply. We would very much like to create a board games library, where pupils can sign games in and out. Many thanks to the FONS for their generous support.
By Eleanor Lewis December 11, 2024
11 December 2024 saw the return of the Cokesian Ball after a four-year gap. The U6 pupils have fond memories of the event, so they could think of nothing better than reinstating it this year! The House were invited to have cookies and squash in the Refectory after school before moving to the Blake studio for a 1630hrs start. We were treated to an array of different and slightly whacky performances across the evening from each tutor group, which ensured that light-hearted fun was at the centre of the event. M5C got the evening going with their own take on a short Nativity, which was expertly narrated by Rory Evans and starred Miss Tilbrook as King Herod. The use of props and name tags ensured everyone was able to keep up with the story! L4 and U4 Coke combined forces to perform an original rap with tongue-in-cheek content about the tutors in Coke House! It was exceptionally well written and performed with guest appearances from both Mr Moore and Mrs Brown. U5C treated us to a 'unique' (!) rendition of the 80s Christmas classic, 'Merry Christmas Everyone' by Shakin' Stevens, where audience participation was actively encouraged to keep the tune going! There was a lot of love for the L5 performance where a few volunteers joined the team to for an incredible interpretation of 'Jingle Bells' using the much-loved Boomwhackers. L6 had come up with another original involving eating chocolate, and of course, everyone loved to get involved! Groups of approximately 8 pupils had to make their way through a chocolate advent calendar as quick as they could. The only complication was that they were only allowed to use a knife and fork, and there were time penalties for using their hands. Bonus points were awarded for flicking the chocolate into the air and catching it in their mouth! The performances finished with the U6 group running a 'Who am I?' style Kahoot quiz where they put together a mixture of unique, funny and slightly silly facts about them so the rest of the house has some dirt on them for the remainder of the year! The evening concluded with an expert summary from Mr Hopgood as our resident judge for the evening. He did incredibly well to sit through (and tolerate!) the evening and he even managed to somehow draw out a number of positive comments about the performances! The overall winner of the funniest/silliest performance was M5 Coke with their take on the Nativity, so clearly it was all downhill from the first performance of the evening! A huge thank you to all involved for a low-key, let-your-hair-down, fun and silly evening. There were a lot of laughs had by all.
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