House Information
Introduction
There are three houses at Axe Valley:
Anning
Chudleigh
Coram
Houses compete against each other for the prestigious House Cup each year.
The reigning champions (2021-22) are: Chudleigh
All students and staff belong to a house during their time at Axe Valley. It is a unique opportunity of belonging to the wider community that extends beyond individual performance or success.
A significant proportion of the house points each year are accumulated through the points awarded from lessons, this is to reflect the value of working hard and excelling in day to day life at school.
A wide variety of subjects offer up contests, events, quizzes, competitions and activities for all to participate in each year.
House Captains
Each House is led by a team of House Captains and Vice House Captains whose responsibilities include coordinating their teams entries into each competition as well as helping to run many of the events.
Current House Positions
These are updated regularly and announced through House Assemblies. The current standings are:
Anning: 84.49 points per student
Chudleigh: 89.75 points per student
Coram: 82.34 points per student
Anning House
Mary Anning
Mary Anning, born in 1799 on the Jurassic Coast, just south of Axminster, was a pioneering palaeontologist and fossil collector. Like many women and girls in Britain at the time, Mary had little formal education. She was able to read, however, and taught herself geology and anatomy.
Around 1811 she found a strange-looking fossilised skull. The mysterious specimen was studied and debated for years and was eventually named Ichthyosaurus. In 1823 Mary was the first to discover the complete skeleton of a Plesiosaurus and despite her growing reputation for finding and identifying fossils, the scientific community was hesitant to recognise her work due to her gender. She was persistent and tenacious in her quest for scientific truth and made tremendous contributions to our understanding of dinosaurs and ancient life on Earth.
Adapted from the Biography on the Natural History Museum
Chudleigh House
Mary Chudleigh
The Lady Mary Chudleigh, born Mary Lee in August 1656 near to Exeter, was a poet whose strong views on the emancipation of women were well ahead of their time. She wrote a number of poems and essays on the relationships between men and women and maintained a strong feminist stance in much of her work including To the Ladies, a witty but forceful poem, encouraging her sisters not to fear their husbands “as a God”.
Lady Mary’s collections of poetry and essays were mostly written on feminist themes. She believed forcefully in education for women and in reform to the marriage traditions. She had the integrity to see far beyond the unacceptable status quo and could envision a future of equality between women and men.
Adapted from the Biography on the ‘My Poetic Side’ website
Coram House
Thomas Coram
Born in 1668 close to Axminster, Coram was a self-made businessman who turned his life to philanthropy, with a reputation for radical thinking. Coram was born in Britain but spent his formative years in the American colonies, where he made his fortune as a shipbuilder and naval captain. Coram brought the lessons learned in America back with him to London, where he founded the first charity for children, The Foundling Hospital. Unusually for the period, both boys and girls were taught to read and write. Coram remained a passionate advocate for girls’ education until late in life.
Coram embodies our key value of kindness. He championed social mobility and the rights of children, particularly those who were illegitimate and abandoned by wider society. Coram set about changing Britain’s attitude towards its most vulnerable members of society.
Adapted Biography from Time Magazine