Right from the start of Year 9, the house system provides a place of safety, identity and belonging for our pupils at Highgate. One of the special things for me now, in my fifth year of the role, is seeing those pupils who started out feeling like small fishes in a big pond, taking such pride in learning from their older peers and wanting to be House Captain, or getting their colours as they reach the senior years.
Originating from Highgate’s historic boarding houses 160 years ago, the house system comprises twelve houses altogether, grouping pupils from Years 9 – 13 into small tutor groups, one per year, that combine vertically to form a larger house ‘family’.
Making house spaces feel important to pupils is part of our job as Heads of House. That’s one of the reasons we have the House Singing competition so early in the year. It’s an intense project where just seven days into the new term Years 9-13 gather at St Michael’s Church to present an original arrangement, adjudicated by a professional musician. When you get 60 or 70 people on stage, singing something that they’ve created themselves, with all the house identities shining through – it’s such fun. You can see the outcome of how much work people have put in.
But really, the actual competition is not the most important part of it. The process of collaboration between the year groups and the friendly spirit that comes out on the night sets the tone for the younger Y9s and 10s who are finding their feet. Seeing pupils proud of their performance, their house and their community, as well as forming friendships that can last throughout the school – there’s nothing better!
Pupils are given house captaincy roles at the end of Y12 as part of the wider pupil leadership team, which includes Peer Mental Health training from our in-house Head of Wellbeing. House Captains help to drive so much of what is happening across the house: coming to us with ideas, getting to know the younger pupils, putting teams together, writing scripts and cutting the music. Most importantly, they should set the tone in building an inclusive House of which they are proud to be a part.
Two senior pupils will come to daily registration each morning to welcome the Year 9 and 10 groups. For those younger pupils, having an older role model who knows their name and takes the time to find out about their interests can have such a positive impact. We try to make it a great place to start your day.
The vertical system is also beneficial for ad-hoc mentoring – there’s advice on hand for nearly everything, whether that’s agonising over GCSE and A level choices, or coping with exams. Many of the houses do something called ‘House Families’ with pupils from every year, to create smaller community networks within a house. We’ll do quizzes, debates, or mini competitions within our house meetings, to build a sense of fun and teamwork.
As Head of House, your primary responsibility is working with families across pastoral, wellbeing and academic progress. We keep in touch with parents about how their children are getting on and any challenges they might be facing – whether that’s friendships, or personal situations – and of course, when things are going well too. It’s so rewarding to go and watch pupils in their concerts or taking part in the French Play, for example, seeing them outside of the classroom space and getting involved. Academically, we’ll make sure that pupils understand their targets, which might be touching in after Learning Review points or managing understandable stress around exams. One of the best things is getting to know families well, because siblings go into the same house. As Heads of House, seeing our families regularly, for instance at festive or summer parties and welcome evenings, allows us to build relationships and to provide the best possible support.
During the year, there are about 35 competitions including some which are split into Junior (Years 9 and 10) and Senior events (Years 11, 12, 13), and others that span all the year groups. Participation is key and there is something for everyone to get their teeth into. From sporting competitions, like football, netball, fives, hockey, tennis, cricket, you name it, to more academic activities, such as house quiz, maths or chess, to the creative outlets like drama, art, singing and instrumental ensembles. In recent years, we’ve introduced some new participation events, such as house photography, puzzles, bake-off and countdown, where we have seen different faces. This is crucial to ensure just the right level of pride in house representation, without feeling as though the competitions come with a weight of responsibility or consequence. Heads of House and House Captains try to attend as much as they can to cheer pupils on.
Pupils earn points for every event they take part in, which builds towards earning their ‘half colours’ (12 points) and ‘full colours’ (24 points). It’s so nice to celebrate those moments in our house meetings, along with other occasions like birthdays. Every house does it differently, there’s a ‘Heathgate hero’ mug, a pin badge from The Lodge, or ‘Kingsgate legend’ pens for example – we try to make it so that everyone across the house feels they’ve been celebrated and noticed.
There’s the obvious element of competition between the houses, which leads towards the Charley Cup at the end of the year. Some houses relish their competitive side, others embrace being the middle of the pack, or even a sense of being the underdogs. Ultimately, we hope that everyone will get stuck in and enjoy being part of their community. We also meet at least once a fortnight as a Head of House ‘twelve’ to ensure we are streamlining house experiences as much as possible, whilst retaining unique character in each one.
After Easter, I’ll start working with the Head of Lower School to allocate Year 8 pupils who are about to join the house system. This is always an exciting process – it feels a bit like Harry Potter and the sorting hat, wondering who you’ll get! We think carefully about how we group pupils, making a holistic pastoral assessment of pupil combinations that will work well together, thinking about looser geographical connections whilst encouraging them to embrace fresh opportunities and the chance to make new friends and acquaintances who were not in their forms.
It’s always an emotional moment when the Y13 House Captains speak at graduation, as you can see the significance that house life has had on their time at Highgate. It is a special day, with the sadness of saying goodbye to pupils and families offset by the confidence that the young people are ready to embrace their next challenges.
Many Grindal parents and OCs have shared their stories with me fondly about their own memories of Highgate houses. Hopefully, the present generation will also see them as a crucial and cherished part of their school journeys.
About the author Charles Martland, Senior Head of House Charles joined Highgate in 2019 as a History teacher and has been Head of Grindal House for four years. As Senior Head of House, he chairs the twelve-strong HoH team which looks after pupils in Y9-13. Charles enjoys theatre, comedy and cooking, and also referees professional football.
