House Program: Benefits for School Culture and Academics
By Nathan D. Bryant
With myself having never taught in a European school, aside from the Harry Potter movies, I was completely unaware of the House Program that can be offered by schools. Having now greatly enjoyed the opportunity of overseeing this program, it is very clear to me the benefits that are offered. For people new to the House Program, I suggest you take a look at what Collegiate Way can further explain about this program. In summary, the House Program is meant to be a process of explicitly stating what school values and actions the staff are promoting, as well as celebrate achievements made by individual House students, or the House as a whole. At ISCHMC AAVN, we presented a concise and simple introduction to the House Program, in which I was tasked as Dean of Students to develop and oversee for our new school. We chose to focus on academics (via honor roll), positive behaviors (via student and teacher recommendations), attendance and once a year we held a full day House Spirit competition, with various games and challenges. As you can see in the pictures below, one of my main strategies was to have clear and consistent feedback on the House ranking.
As Dean of Students, it was not only an effective way for me to keep the pulse on the school culture, but the House program also provided me an opportunity to foster positive attitudes and habits within our school culture. The House Board kept all objectives per a team tracked, and each term there were updates that kept the competition fueled. At the end of each term, I also oversaw the school assemblies, and always last came the most exciting part, the latest scoring of the House rankings. The House Program became so popular, I even had one enterprising student craft key chain charms of the House Mascots. Our leadership team agreed to buy a bulk amount of these charms from her, from which we used as rewards to recognize role-model House Members during assemblies (you can see the sample picture below).
“…the House Program also provided me an opportunity to foster positive attitudes and habits within our school culture.”
Benefits for creating a House Program:
While the House Program has been in select parts of Europe and spreading to other schools around the world, schools in the USA are now starting to implement this program. You can take a moment and read in the news how House Programs are Building a Sense of Belonging. I am greatly relieved to see the House Program gaining momentum, because a sense of belonging and positive school culture can go a long way in making a difference for students.
Having built up and run this program myself for 2 years, I found the following benefits to be great returns on the investments of time and energy we spent building up the House system:
1. It was clear to everyone in our school community what behaviors we wanted to see, and we had a consistent and fun way to provide motivation in developing these positive habits.
2. Students and staff within Houses had fun together, through a variety of competitions and events. People made supporting relationships, and there were regular opportunities to socialize and make new friends.
3. Working as a team, staff and student leaders contributed to decide what values, habits and events would be like for the House program. We worked as a team to build the community we all wanted to have.
A House Program is by far one of the best ways an administrator can guide and develop school culture, and I greatly look forward to the day of overseeing such a fantastic program again, once the opportunity presents itself.