House system

The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries. The school is divided into units called "houses" and each student is allocated to one house at the moment of enrollment. Houses may compete with one another at sports and maybe in other ways, thus providing a focus for group loyalty.

Historically, the house system has been associated with public schools in England, especially boarding schools, where a "house" referred to a boarding house at the school. In this case, the housemaster or housemistress in charge of the house is in loco parentis to the pupils who live in it, even though the house normally has a separate "private side" in which they can live a family life. Such an arrangement still continues in most boarding schools, while in day schools the word ''house'' is likely to refer to a grouping of pupils, rather than to a particular building.

Schools have different numbers of houses, with different numbers of students in each, depending on the arrangements adopted by the schools. Facilities, such as pastoral care, may be provided on a house basis.

Houses may be named after saints, famous historical alumni or notable regional topics (e.g. in international schools, houses are sometimes named in honour of local celebrities). Former British royal houses (dynasties) are also used in the UK. Other more arbitrary names—animal names or colours, for example—are also often used. Houses are also often referred to by the original name of the building or by the name or initials of the housemistress or housemaster. Each house will usually also be identified by its own symbol, logo, or colours.

At co-educational boarding schools, there may be separate houses for boys and girls, as at the Lawrenceville School, whose house system is itself based on that of Rugby School. Students may also be grouped by year groups or status as boarders or day students. At Winchester College and Eton College, there is a separate house for foundation scholars. Where the school has boarders and day pupils like the King's School, Canterbury or Shrewsbury School, they will often be allocated to separate houses. There have also been cases, for example at Cheltenham College, of pupils being allocated to different houses according to their religion. At traditional full boarding schools such as Radley College and Harrow School, students are grouped by boarding house.

Pastoral care

In some boarding schools, a primary purpose of the house system is to provide pastoral care to the students. Separated from parents for long periods, children will rely on the school to fulfil their socio-emotional needs, in addition to meeting their basic physical care. The smaller within-school structure of the house facilitates this, by promoting personalised care, with more frequent interactions, and lower child-to-adult-carer ratios, than within the wider school. Similar benefits of closer relationships between teachers and students may occur in day schools that use house systems for this purpose.

Peer relationships and fostering of community feeling are a similar aim of school house systems, whether in boarding or day schools. One headmaster of an English-style school – Brighton College Bangkok – David Tongue, writing in an editorial, described the team-spirit engendered by school houses this way: "This camaraderie and solidarity is second to none and the benefits of this vertical interaction, where the young look up to the elder and where the elder look out for and support the younger, are profound." In Britain, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust ow SSAT (The Schools Network)">SSAT_(The_Schools_Network).html" ;"title="ow SSAT (The Schools Network)">ow SSAT (The Schools Network) has endorsed use of House systems as one strategy for preventing the deterioration of children's educational and social progress, a common feature of transition from primary school">primary