The House System – Structure and Philosophy:

The house system is based on the traditional British model and is designed to provide opportunities for students to be recognized for meritorious actions in both academic and social aspects of school life. The system also seeks to provide experiences with healthy competition as well as create a sense of community across grade levels.

Upon entry to the Lancaster, all students are assigned to one of four houses: Dragon, Phoenix, Kraken, and Unicorn, lead by a house head and two 5th grade house captains (one boy and one girl), selected for their interest and enthusiasm regarding house events. Each year, the house system runs from September to July, with points being awarded daily in both home room and specialist classrooms as well as during house events which are programmed throughout the year. The running totals are announced during civic ceremonies and are posted on the bulletin board beside the entrance to the library.

In primary, children can receive two types of points. General house points are awarded to students or groups of students who exceed expectations on assignments or in demonstrating the PYP profile traits or attitudes. Teachers can also award individual points for which children not only receive a point for the class chart, but also receive a signature in their record book. These signatures are collected in order to move forward in the pin recognition system, a three-pin system marking individual successes designed as follows:

30 signatures: bronze pin and certificate presented in civic ceremony
80 signatures: silver pin and certificate presented in civic ceremony
150 signatures: gold pin and certificate presented in civic ceremony

The objective is for students to keep their signature pages from year to year in order to continue registering their individual progress. It typically takes students from two to three years to collect the signatures necessary for their next pin, particularly as they move through the system. These long-term ambitions assist students in monitoring their own behavior and academic progress as well as becoming aware of the steps necessary to achieve their goals.

At the kinder level, students do not have signature cards. However, they are provided with two levels of distinction corresponding to those in primary. General house points are posted on the classroom chart, while individual distinctions are marked by PYP profile trait stickers that the students wear all day.

Changes to the House System:

The house system has an enormous potential to motivate and bring our students together, particularly if the entire community joins in supporting its endeavors. As the new house coordinator, I have high hopes for the program and intend to implement the necessary steps for our system to reach full efficacy.

Although students have always been motivated to receive house points, in the recent past attendance to house days was low and signature cards lost importance for children in the higher grades. In addition, by midyear the top two houses maintained their efforts to win the end of year prize, but the 3rd and 4th place houses began to loose momentum. We are making some minor and major changes to the program this year in order to solve these problems with our older students:

• No House Days – We will no longer be dedicating an entire day to house activities or be scheduling house events for the last days of each term. Instead, we are planning a series of highly varied shorter events which will be linked to school themes each month. Starting in September, we will be launching the new system by conducting opening activities in which children from all grade levels can get to know each other and rekindle their enthusiasm for their houses. In the following months, the houses will come together in art, music, sports, philanthropic, and academic experiences linked to our existing events and programs such as Day of the Dead, the Green Team, Math Week, Sports Day, etc.

• Consistency of Points – Teachers and staff have joined together to define guidelines for actions and behaviors that merit a general house point as well as an individual point in order to improve consistency across grade levels and among classrooms.

• Prizes – Although we still intend to reward our winning house with a special event at the end of the year, we are planning to rework the organization of prizes. By rethinking the final outing, we can provide recognition for more than one house throughout the year. For example, a house might be recognized as most philanthropic, the greenest group, or super spellers and receive an event or outing to celebrate their success.

As the leader of our new house team, I am thrilled at the possibilities for the future of our house system and look anxiously forward to the changes in the upcoming few years. The team is brimming with ideas, but also welcomes your comments and suggestions for improving the program. Together we can make the system an enormous success!

Caroline Horowitz
House Coordinator
4th Grade English