Valpy House

Welcome to Valpy House!

"I have been a teacher at Norwich School since 2007 and have been Head of Valpy since 2020. As well as teaching Maths, I also coach hockey, athletics and orienteering, in additon to helping on DofE expeditions, and sharing my love of nature and wildlife with pupils. I hope that the House system at Norwich School encourages pupils to get involved in a wide range of activities during their time with us. In Valpy, we try to monitor the whole picture and encourage everyone not to be afraid to have a go, whether this is in a science lab, on stage or on the sports field."














"My name is Will Jackson, and I’m the House Captain of Valpy House. I study Biology, Psychology and History with an intention to study Psychology at university.  I am a President of the Debating Society as well as Chair of the Clio Society which is a club which focuses on pupil led historical presentations and discussion.  Valpy House are striving to become more competitive since the start of the year, which has been mostly successful so far." 

House History

Edward Valpy, Head 1811–29, aroused strong emotions in pupils. While some remembered him with ‘cordial gratitude, respect and even affection’, others saw him as a snob and a tyrant. His reputation for corporal punishment was legendary; but he was apparently less brutal than his counterpart, Mr Keats of Eton. Valpy was also a scholar of great merit, publishing in Latin and his old boys regarded him highly enough to call the first ON club ‘The Valpeian Society’. Under his headship, pupil numbers flourished exponentially.


When a new House was needed in 1962 to absorb increasing school numbers, Valpy's name was the obvious choice. He had raised the number of boys in the school from tens to hundreds during his headship, having spread the academic reputation of the school beyond the bounds of Norfolk and Suffolk. Valpy’s disciplined sense of order however can appear lacking however during the chaos of Valpy Pancake day.

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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