SPECIALREPORT
Creating Our House System The House System has a long tradition in UK and US boarding schools, and it is one of the important aspects that help defines our school. Our Primary School is divided into four Houses, and each student is allocated to a House. The Houses are named after the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, each House being identified by its own symbol and colour. It is a way of building team spirit and group loyalty through collaboration and competition in sports and other media among the different Houses. It also makes students’ school life and competitions more exciting. When students first enter Secondary School, they will be assigned to one of eight Houses. Each House is named based on eight trees from around the world. We purposely chose Redwood from North America and Europe, Baobab from Africa, Spruce from North America, Oak from Europe, Asia, and North America, Jacaranda from South America, Cedar of the western Himalayas and Mediterranean region, Kauri from New Zealand, and Maple from Asia and North America as our House symbols, so students can develop global perspective by conducting research about its origin and folklore. “We hope students will take the future initiative to create nicknames, house cheers, posters, and songs for their respective houses. As the school grows and expands to its ideal capacity of up to 650 students, there will be approximately 80 students per House. We expect to build a unique and exclusive House System to YK Pao School tradition”, shares Joe Elias, Director of Student Life at Secondary School. According to Joe Elias, it is important to keep each House to a moderate size, so all the Houses are balanced with leadership, citizenship, and a variety of skills. The House System also crosses gender and age group, so that each group is big enough to have a variety of personalities and talents, but not big
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to the point where they will create their own cliques within the Houses. The most exciting part about the House System is the athletic competitions. This year we have organised several competitions between the Houses, and no team has dominated thus far since games have varied from swimming to football, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, and so on. The School will organise debates, drama, and other performances in the future as well. These competitions and team work create pride and loyalty among members of the house.
Just as character development is a long process, it will also take time for the concept of Houses to be instilled into the students’ minds. Under the House System, students’ characters will develop though the challenges of sporting competition, theatrical performance, collaboration to achieve a common goal or service project, and working with a variety of dorm parents on different projects. “These events will help to create traditions in the school community, so let’s be patient and let it grow and eventually blossom,” says Elias.