Coke House

Welcome to Coke House!

"My role as Head of Coke House is most rewarding. I work with a fantastic team of tutors who are extremely dedicated and passionate about each pupil enjoying their time at Norwich School. We work closely alongside senior pastoral, academic and co-curricular staff, to ensure that each pupil’s needs are met, and they can go about their daily journey through school positively. We aim to support all pupils in the House to achieve their potential in an empathetic and compassionate environment, whilst helping resolve any difficulties and celebrating the many successes. The House takes its name from Sir Edward Coke - Barrister, Judge, and politician during the 16th Century. He pursued his career with a balanced perspective, an open mind, and a determination for morality – these are the values that we hope to develop in our pupils as they progress through each year and thrive in our House. “

"I’m Katie Smith and I am House Captain of Coke House. I joined Norwich School at the start of Lower 6 and I study biology, geography and psychology for my A Levels. My highlights at Norwich School Sixth Form have been performing in the Senior School musicals Guys and Dolls and Grease for the last two years, playing hockey and netball for the second teams and being part of the Senior Girls Choir. I can’t wait for our House events this year, such as Cup Run and Sports Day!"

House History

Coke House was founded in 1945 and is named after Sir Edward Coke, who was Speaker of the House of Commons and Attorney-General under Elizabeth I and was Chief Justice under James I. Coke was a zealous prosecutor of Sir Walter Raleigh (“Thou art a monster. Thou hast an English face but a Spanish heart”) and of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. He is attributed with coining the phrase: "the house of an Englishman is to him as his castle". He laid the foundations of his family’s great wealth and is without doubt one of the most influential legal minds this school has ever produced.

Cokesians are expected to make the very best of their individual academic, musical and sporting talents, and to use those talents both for their own improvement and for the betterment of others. While inter-house competition is enjoyed, co-operation is highly valued, fairness is paramount and winning is a consequence of hard work.

Much of Sir Edward’s influence lives on today and, in some small way, this House follows his lead with a balanced perspective, an open mind, and a determination to do what is right.

House News

Valpy House Celebrate Shrove Tuesday

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?

FONS Provide Fun for Fourth Form and Repton House

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.

Return of the Cokesian Ball!

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.