House System

What is a School House System:  The house system at Stillness serves to develop a sense of identity and belonging and to celebrate the children’s achievements.  We feel it is important for the children to have the opportunity to play an active role and contribute to a community within their school, which allows them to develop skills and talents and acknowledges their successes in a wide range of ways.

By creating smaller more connected communities within the broader school community, children have a built-in place where they belong.  They are automatically a part of a group – but not just nominally.  The children work together to gain points which means they must recognise and encourage each other’s talents and abilities.  Once a child is placed into a house, they become a part of a little family that will cheer them on and rely on their participation to reach specific goals.  This can also be extremely positive for new children or children who struggle to fit in.  It will give them a sense of belonging which in turn has a tremendous impact on their happiness, identity, and even academic engagement.

How does the School House System work: When a child enrols at Stillness, they will be assigned to a certain house, in which they will remain throughout their entire journey from Y3 to Y6.  All teaching and support staff, including the headteacher and deputy headteacher are also allocated to a house.  Over the course of the week, children will be given the opportunity to earn points for their respective house.  This can include producing great work, showing an act of kindness, being polite, showing good sportsmanship, a piece of artwork or even participating in local community/charity events.  At the end of each week, the house that has accrued the most points will be rewarded 5 minutes extra privilege time on a Friday.  This extra time is taken out in the playground.

Every child gets a chance to contribute: We encourage the children to play an active role in the success of their house.  Individual and team efforts are rewarded and all children are expected to contribute to inter-house competitions throughout the year such as sports day.

Who and why have we chosen our School House names:The four people we have named our houses after are people who have lived in the Borough of Lewisham and have achieved great things. We have:

Grace is named after William Grace who was an English amateur cricketer.   He was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. Grace’s house colour is green.

Nesbit is named after Edith Nesbit who was an English writer and poet.  She lived on Baring Grove in Grove Park.  She wrote over 60 books including The Railway Children which is a much loved children’s classic.  Nesbit’s house colour is blue.

Phoenix is named after Sybil Phoenix who started fostering in 1961.  She also became a community worker, providing support for unwanted children.  Sybil was the first black woman to be awarded the MBE in 1973.  From 1998 to 1999, she was Civic Mayoress and was elevated to OBE in June 2008.  Phoenix’s house colour is yellow.

Ross is named after James Ross was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations and wonders of the Artic.  Ross’ house colour is red.

Benefits of a School House System: The house system in our school comes with a range of benefits for the children from getting them involved in the school community to fostering healthy competition and because it is fun!  Additional benefits of the house system in our school include:

• fostering community involvement – children are encouraged to engage with their fellow housemates to play an active role in the community of our school
• engaging children – children are excited to engage in school life with prospect of winning points for their house
• strengthening relationships across the year groups – as houses are not restricted to certain age groups, children will compete alongside peers of varying year groups, allowing them to branch out from their usual class group e.g. sports day
• instilling healthy competition – children compete in a number of events and competitions throughout the year in an effort to earn points for their house, fostering friendly healthy competition
• encouraging leadership – the house system enables children to encourage their housemates and lead each other in spirited competition
• encouraging team spirit – provides children with a variety of ways for them to earn points for their team so that everyone can contribute
• enhancing school spirit – the house system instils in children a sense of pride in their respective house as well as the school in general building a stronger overall school community.