Newby House
Hello, I am Debbie Whitehead and am now in my third year as Newby Housemistress. I feel very privileged to be caring for such a wonderful and talented group of young ladies. I live in the Newby Flat along with my husband, Keith (a maths teacher) and have a daughter who is a boarder in Givendale House. I am lucky to have the support of two very special ladies, Mrs Barrington and Mrs Healey, the very capable and much loved Newby House Assistants.
Newby is a warm, friendly and happy House with a lovely family atmosphere. We have over fifty girls in the House, boarder and day, aged between thirteen and seventeen. Newby is one of the four senior houses and is in the main school along with Givendale and Harewell; we have a view over to Mulwith from one side of Newby and towards the chapel and the beautiful Dorset countryside from the other. Mary Ward lived in Newby House in Yorkshire for a short span of her life following the fire in Mulwith. The house was very grand with extensive, beautiful grounds which reflect some of the views we are lucky enough to have here.
The girls are free to socialise with friends from all the houses and are often found in our lovely large common room, complete with pool table, either playing pool, studying, watching television or a DVD, playing on the Wii or enjoying the contents of the kitchen, namely toast, chocolate spread, hot chocolate and other goodies. Friday nights are treat nights when the whole house come together as a family for pancakes, cakes, a game of Bingo or for Happy Hour (DVD and popcorn); they are very popular.
Monday evenings are when I invite the boarders in year groups into my flat for hot chocolate, a chat and a game, the most loved being Consequences and Spoons! Occasionally we give a year group a special treat of a Saturday morning lie-in and make them Pancakes in house for breakfast. Mrs B and Mrs Healey regularly have the girls in their room for a get together with cake, biscuits or home-made fudge, or organise an activity. Day girls can sometimes stay overnight if there is a spare bed and enjoy all the fun.
We have a fantastic Lower Sixth House Team this year led by Minna and her Deputies, Imogen and Hannah. The other members of the team are Giulia, Issy, Lizzie, Alice, Emily and Grace; they each have individual areas of responsibility and between them help to make Newby what it is … wonderful!
We consider ourselves very lucky to have Mr Sykes, Mr Davies, Mrs Hall, Mrs Drew, Mrs Fearnley, Mrs Pugh, Miss Flower, Mrs Le Poidevin, Mrs James, Mrs Howcroft and Miss Maskell as House Staff - they support Newby and the girls in all that they do.
