Rationale for Houses
Background:
Houses were established in 2014 to improve pupil relationships, particularly between year groups. Post-covid, the opportunity to work across age groups and reconnect has been invaluable.
The three houses link to the churches and parishes in our catchment area: St Peter’s churches in Diddlebury and Stanton Lacy, St Michael’s church in Munslow and All Saints in Culmington. The house colours of Purple, Green and White were chosen to reflect the liturgical colours of the church calendar. Children are divided into each house to give a mix of ages and gender in each.
To foster a sense of community, the reward system of ticks and marbles linked to our school values are totalled for each house. The house with the most marble points each half-term are awarded the house cup with an overall winning house at the end of the year.
The opportunity to work together as a house was introduced through house activities and our annual sports day. These house activities sessions have evolved over the years. In 2022-23, we are running three afternoon sessions each term where all the children are outside enjoying activities such as forest school at Millichope or themes in the school grounds such as 'trees', 'weather' and 'outdoor art'.
Impact:
Pupil relationships improved and the school has a strong family feel. Older pupils enjoy the opportunity to mentor younger pupils. All staff work with all pupils and pupils move around the school for different sessions. This helps new pupils to settle in quickly and to become known by everyone. Pupils chosen to be House Captain or House Rep feel proud to represent their house on the School Council. Staff have noticed that some children displayed more positive attitudes to learning when working in house groups, e.g. willing to take risks, showing greater independence, being more resilient than would normally be seen in their class group. Children enjoy the opportunity to work in house groups. They do not perceive these sessions to be work but fun.
School Council
Our school council is made up of our house captains and house representatives. They meet three times a term to share any suggestions classes have to improve the school; to give their pupil voice on different themes (for example, safety around school, PE and sport, learning feedback, etc); and to plan fundraising activities for charities. The house captains also meet with the headteacher to discuss any proposals they have.