Student Voice: Meet the House Named After an Arctic Explorer
Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi is made up of students from around the world, with a depth and breadth of experiences that create a vibrant, thriving student body community.
In this series of Student Voice articles, we provide a platform for the students in our community to share their experiences and passions and we explore how Dulwich has helped them Learn Worldwise, so they can Graduate Worldwise.
In this article, Marketing and Communications Intern, Vaishu, takes us on a tour to learn more about one of the Houses at Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi: Shackleton House.
Over the next few articles, I will be profiling each of the four Houses at Dulwich College Shanghai Puxi. For this article, I looked at Shackleton House. I interviewed members of Shackleton House, including the current House Captain, and researched the man himself, Ernest Shackleton.
The Life of Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton, an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who wanted to explore the South Pole, was born on February 15, 1874 in Kilkea House, County Kildare, Ireland and died on January 5, 1922 in Grytviken, South Georgia. He was born to Henry Shackleton and Henrietta Letitia Sophia Gavan and was the second youngest child in the family of 10.
In the year 1880, Henry Shackleton decided to move to Dublin to study medicine. Four years later, when Ernest was 8, the family relocated to Sydenham, in suburban London. Till the age of 11, a governess was in charge of Ernest’s studies. After that, when he was 11, he attended Dulwich College, London from 1887 to 1890. At the age of 16, Ernest entered the mercantile marine service. In 1901, he became sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve.
Ernest Shackleton is best remembered for saving his crew after the failed expedition of the Endurance between the years 1914 and 1916. The Endurance Expedition had set out from the United Kingdom in August 1914. Their goal was the achieve the first land crossing of the White Continent from the Weddell Sea via the South Pole to the Ross Sea.
However, in early 1915, the ship got stuck in the ice on the sea. So, the crew had no other choice but to abandon their ship and start camping on the dense ice as they couldn’t go anywhere else.
Shackleton and Worsley – Captain of the Endurance decided to lead a small party in one of the very few boats available to South Georgia because they knew that it was highly unlikely for anyone to visit Elephant Island – the place the crew was stranded – as it was so remote.
Ultimately landing on the south side of the island, Shackleton had to cross uncharted territories to reach the Norwegian whalers. Rescue missions to reach the stranded expedition members at Elephant island were thwarted by the thick sea ice. Finally, on 30th August 1916, the expedition party on Elephant Island was taken to safety in Punta Arenas by the Chileans.
In the end, in spite of his heroics, Shackleton had a hard time getting back to England because of his finances and personal circumstances. Eventually, he managed to get a financing for another trip to Antarctica but, he had a fatal heart attack on the way and sadly, passed away.
An interview with Bella, House Captain of Shackleton House
Now that everyone knows a little bit about Sir Ernest Shackleton himself, let’s get to know a bit more about the Shackleton House Captain for 2020-2021, Bella in Year 7.
Q. Hi! Can you please introduce yourself?
Hi everyone. My name is Bella, and I am from the UK. I transferred to Dulwich last year. Before moving to Shanghai and starting at Dulwich, I lived in Lincolnshire which is in the Eastern part of England.
Q. How long have you been in Dulwich and what have you learnt about yourself here? What are some of your memories from your time at Dulwich?
I’ve been at Dulwich since August 2019. I’ve learned that I really enjoy learning languages. Mandarin was the first foreign language I learned. One of my favourite memories was participating in last year’s senior school production - The Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. The thing I enjoyed most about it was how fun it was when we were practising it and how it was a fun experience in acting. I look forward to making new memories next term, and for more years to come
Q. What are your aspirations for the future both here at school and beyond?
I hope to participate in more netball matches in the coming years here, as we weren’t able to last year because of COVID-19. I’d also like to study Science, in hope of becoming a heart surgeon in the future.
Q. Moving on to your role at The College, what leadership position are you currently undertaking? How does it feel to be in your role? What does your role entail?
I am the House Captain for Shackleton House. Our House colour is green. Or House is named after the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. As House Captain, I help organise House weeks and events. Furthermore, I represent the House at events. For example, so far, I’ve helped organise two House weeks - rounders and Kahoot! quizzes - and I’ve also helped Shackleton House members sign up to Sports Day activities. We decided on the days we were going to do the quizzes and in which classrooms. I also created the pop music quiz. We then organised how the results were going to be announced. And Shackleton won!
Q. What do you think are the core requirements a House Captain should have?
Personally, I think House Captains should have faith in their respective Houses and should be creative and imaginative to think of House events.
Q. Before you got into the role, how hard did you expect the role to be? What do you think now?
I thought that it would just be a matter of representing the House, but I soon found out that it was the House Captain’s job to organise House weeks and events. I think organising House weeks is a chance to be creative with competition ideas that we’ve never done before.
Q. If there was one person you would like to thank for providing and encouraging you to take on your route, who would it be?
I think Esther, the former House Captain, because I was nervous and regretting putting myself up for House Captain, but she convinced me that it was normal and that I would get over it and that I would love it. And she was right, I am starting to actually enjoy it.
Q. How do you manage time for your studies?
I sometimes struggle with my organization skills and making sure I stay on top of my workload. There is a lot to manage. One way I keep on top of it is by using some time after school each day before I leave. I stay after school each day until 5:00pm and study at that time.
Q. What do you want to achieve throughout this year as House captain?
I hope to make a really fun House week, that’s never been done before, and I hope to motivate my House when in doubt.
Q. Why is your House special to you?
It is special to me because Shackleton never gave up. He persevered, since he didn’t succeed straight away. I hope our House can do the same.
Q. What does your House mean to you?
My House, I feel is something that I’m part of, not what I lead. I think that everyone’s voices should be heard and that everyone is equal, but I just hope I can motivate them.
Q. How would you describe your House in one or two words? Why?
Enduring and risk takers. I chose these two because we haven’t won the House cup yet, but we keep persevering and push ourselves. I feel like we are sometimes out of our comfort zone, but we have good attitude to new challenges, and we try our best.
After meeting with Bella, I decided to interview a range of Shackleton House students to get their opinions on what they love about Shackleton House, and what they think the spirit of the House is.
“Shackleton is a house full of team spirit. I like this house because the House Captain is very cheerful, even though we didn’t get first place on Sports Day, Bella still went to almost every activity to cheer for the Shackleton member who is competing.”
— Jacinda, Year 9
“Our House Captain is the best! She always keeps encouraging us when we are sad and asks us to keep persevering.”
— Minnie, Year 9
“We always keep going. We don’t care if we win or lose. Winning or losing isn’t important, having fun is.”
— Zhenzhu, Year 8
“Bella is a really good House Captain.”
— Janey, Year 11
“Shackleton is the best House because we are the best.”
— Emily, Year 7A
“We might not always win but, we always work as a team.”
— Ellie, Year 7A
Finally, Head of Shackleton House, Ms Dennis, reflected on the strength of the House, “Shackleton House are a group of young people who exemplify perseverance, unity, and creativity. This has been shown in past events such as their big win in the Senior School House Quiz before the Christmas break. They soared past competition to come out on top in topics such as general knowledge, popular culture, music and movies. The team were led by Shackleton House Captain, Bella, and worked together as a team to use their collective knowledge to, ultimately, win.”
Thank you for taking time to read through the article. In the next article in this series, we would like to introduce you to Earhart House.
Reference
- "Ernest Shackleton | Biography, Facts, & Voyage of Endurance." Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d., https://www.britannica.com/biography/ernest-henry-shackleton Accessed 14 December 2020.
- "Ernest Shackleton". Biography, 2021, https://www.biography.com/explorer/ernest-shackleton Accessed 14 Dec 2020
- "Ernest Shackleton". Infoplease, 2021, https://www.infoplease.com/people/who2-biography/ernest-shackleton. Accessed 14 Dec 2020
- "Sir Ernest Shackleton And Endurance - Historic UK". Historic UK, 2021, https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Ernest-Shackleton-And-Endurance/. Accessed 14 Dec 2020.
- "Sir Ernest Shackleton". Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, 2021, http://www.ernestshackleton.net/#about. Accessed 14 Dec 2020
- "Who Was Sir Ernest Shackleton? Everything You Need To Know". Thefamouspeople.Com, 2021, https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/sir-ernest-shackleton-5462.php. Accessed 14 Dec 2020
