The House System at Churchill

September 21, 2023September 21, 2023 / chrishildrew / 1 Comment

The house system has always been integral to the identity of Churchill Academy & Sixth Form. When the school was founded in 1956, as Churchill County Secondary School, it was founded with four “houses” at the very core of the school, named after royal houses of England – Hanover, Stuart, Tudor and Windsor. You can see the original school logo, with the four houses on four corners of a shield, on this bookplate presented to the school’s very first Head Boy, Ivan Devereux, in 1957:

The idea of “houses” in a school goes back to boarding school traditions, when children at a school would literally live in different houses around the school grounds, going to the school building for their lessons and returning to their boarding house for meals, “prep” (or homework) and to sleep in their dormitories. My uncle was actually the housemaster at a boarding school in Yorkshire for many years, and lived in the boarding house permanently with his family. This meant that – in the school holidays – we had the run of the whole, empty place!

My own secondary school was not a boarding school – although it had been historically. This meant that my school also had houses, named after the original housemasters who first took charge of them. There were six houses, and I was in Calverts House – named after Mr Calvert, I presume. I still feel a really close affinity to my school house, and I am still proud to be a Calverts student all these many years later! I know the same is true at Churchill, because many families have a long tradition of grandparents, parents and children being in the same house. This feeling of belonging cannot be manufactured; it is grown and developed over years and years of careful nurturing.

In September 2020, we added Lancaster House to the four original houses at Churchill. Despite the fact that we made the announcement the week before schools went into lockdown, we still managed to implement the change when students returned to face-to-face education following the first round of pandemic closures. Lancaster is now fully established within the Academy, and even managed their first victory in the House Cup in summer 2023!

Pictured above: Lancaster winning the House Cup and Sports Day; Hanover winning the tug of war trophy; Tudor winning the Academics Cup; and Windsor winning the Head of House Challenge Cup and the Senior Trek shield. It must be Stuart House’s turn to win something this year!

Being part of a house is about more than just competitions and trophies (although those are great too!) It is about belonging to something bigger than yourself – your “team” within the larger school. We ensure that students’ behaviour, attendance, and contribution to the Academy all made a difference to their house, as well as to them individually; but it is also the house that is the first stop for pastoral care, student welfare, communication with home and behaviour, through the team of tutors and the fantastic Heads of House. And, even more importantly, the house councils are a vital engine of student leadership within the Academy, driving real change and making a positive difference to our community.

At the head of that student leadership effort is our team of house captains. This year’s crop of ten are an exceptional group of students, who are already making a big impact in their leadership of their houses. Heads of House have been running assemblies this week, and it has been great to see the house captains taking their role in that. Their photos are also now up in reception!

As I said at the start, the house system is at the core of Churchill Academy & Sixth Form. The current staff and students are just the stewards of something much bigger than themselves – something that stretches back to the school’s foundation, and which we will pass on – stronger than ever – to those who come after us.

Student Leadership Conference 2022

November 17, 2022November 17, 2022 / chrishildrew / Leave a comment

Last Friday, we held our first Student Leadership Conference at the Food Works SW centre on the outskirts of Weston-super-Mare. Following pandemic disruption, it was great to finally realise the vision of this event, which was a great success!

Lancaster House Council outside Food Works SW on our Student Leadership Conference, Friday 11th November 2022

In total, almost ninety student leaders were able to join us in the plush conference meeting rooms of the Food Works SW. On the agenda was a morning of training, to help our student leaders understand more about their role and to build their skills and confidence in delivering on their leadership ambitions. This included sessions on understanding the concept of leadership, and thinking about the best ways to bring about change, as well as training on communication skills and team building.

The afternoon session involved the House Councils working with the Heads of House to develop their plans for the year ahead. These sessions were about taking the theory from the morning and putting it into practice. What did they want to achieve? And how would they go about achieving it?

It was a full day of challenging thinking and participation, but our student leaders rose to the occasion and showed their commitment to their roles. I feel confident that, with their leadership, the Academy will continue to go from strength to strength.

A fifth house for Churchill

March 12, 2020 / chrishildrew / 3 Comments

The original logo of Churchill County Secondary School, as presented to the first Head Boy in 1957

Churchill has had four houses since its foundation in 1956. The very first school badge features the symbols of Windsor, Hanover, Stuart and Tudor on four quarters of a shield. The house structure works well splitting the Academy into smaller units, to make a big school feel smaller. Vertical tutoring is one of the unique features of Churchill Academy & Sixth Form, with students from Years 7-11 in the same tutor groups. This provides continuity of pastoral care and guidance, and encourages peer support across year groups.

When the school was first started, however, it only had 402 students on roll: around 100 students per house. Our school overall now has nearly 1600 students, with over 1300 in Years 7-11. Over the past four years, more than 150 additional students have joined our popular Academy. This means that the size of the houses has grown, with over 330 students currently in each one. We recognise that our students need and deserve a lower staff-to-student ratio, so that they can get the time and attention they all deserve. We are therefore introducing a fifth house to Churchill Academy & Sixth Form from September 2020.

Introducing Lancaster House

Our new Academy logo, to be rolled out in September 2020

The introduction of a fifth house will reduce the size of each house to a maximum of 270 students. At the same time, we will be adding four additional tutor groups to the house system. This will reduce the size of all main school tutor groups to 23 or fewer, and ensure that all students benefit from their tutor’s care and guidance whilst looking after our staff and making their jobs more manageable.

CASF_Stamp_Main Keeping with the tradition of naming our houses after the houses of the British royal family, the new house will be called Lancaster House, after the royal house o f Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI. The new house will have the colour purple, which will be incorporated into our new pentagonal logo from September.

There is a lot of work for us to do between now and September, when Lancaster House will officially begin. We will be re-organising students and staff across the Academy into the new five-house structure. You can read my letter about the practical arrangements on the Academy website.

Although there will inevitably be some disruption as the changeover takes place, we are confident that the benefits will be well worth it. Every student will benefit from a lower student-to-tutor and student-to-Head-of-House ratio. We are also going to ensure that students in our Sixth Form retain their house identity, so that they can provide additional support to the main school houses and retain that sense of belonging to something bigger that the house structure provides.

This is an exciting time for all of us at Churchill, as we add to our existing structure to make sure that all our students have the best possible experience at school. We look forward to welcoming our Lancaster House students in September 2020!

The Tower

October 3, 2019October 2, 2019 / chrishildrew / 1 Comment

The completed Tower cladding (summer 2019)

We were faced with a problem after the demolition of the Tudor block earlier this year. The Tower – part of the original school buildings from 1956 – remained behind. What should we do with the new “end” of the building?

We knew that the exposed brickwork would be covered with cladding, since the walls had originally been internal walls and needed protecting from the elements. We wanted to come up with a simple but eye-catching design to decorate the expanse of white: something which would capture the spirit of Churchill Academy & Sixth Form but which would last; something which clearly showed the Academy’s identity. I knew that the four Houses of Churchill were a key part of this identity…so how could we get the design to reflect this?

The first idea for the Tower was sketched – literally – on the back of an envelope. After that, I superimposed the four stripes, one for each house, onto the architects’ draft plans for cladding the exterior wall using Photoshop.

First version of the Tower design (with scribbles!) rendered in Photoshop

In this initial design, the stripes started in the same place but then separated out. Once they were flipped over, the design made perfect sense: the four separate houses of the Academy, all heading upwards towards a common shared objective. Like our students, they aren’t all the same, but they are all aspiring, growing, climbing. The stripes show our diversity and what we all share. The expanse of white shows what is yet unwritten – and suggests what is possible.

We are delighted with the final design, which was produced and installed by Naked Signs – carefully, painstakingly, by hand – with the help of a huge cherry-picker hydraulic lift. It certainly formed a talking point for the staff and students at the start of term, with some calling them “the superhero stripes” and others instantly recognising the house colours in the pattern. We hope that our Academy community, and visitors, are equally impressed!

The House Cup

September 19, 2019September 16, 2019 / chrishildrew / 4 Comments

In the process of moving reception this summer, I went through the Academy’s trophy cabinet. As well as finding the Churchill County Secondary School Academic Cup, from 1959 (which we awarded on Presentation Evening to Isaac Burchill), I re-discovered the House Cup.

housecupright

It was somewhat tarnished, but an hour with some silver polish and some elbow grease and it came up beautifully shiny! I am pleased therefore to announce that we are re-instating the overall House Competition for 2019-20. The Churchill Cup will be awarded for a combination of:

Conduct Points
Attitude to Learning
Attendance
Inter-House Competitions
House Matches
Sports Day

Why do we need a House Cup?

The House system is an vital part of Churchill’s identity. When I arrived as Headteacher in 2016, it was top of the list of things staff, students and parents wanted to “keep” as part of the Academy. We want every student to feel part of the community, and part of their House – affiliated and aligned to something bigger than themselves. Whenever they receive an R1, or gain an “Engaged” or “Highly Motivated” grade on a report, they will not only be benefitting themselves but also contributing to their House total and the overall competition.

How do you win points for your House?

Conduct Points: every time any student in the main school receives an R1, R2 or R3 award, those points will automatically count towards the house total. Concerns (C1, C2 etc) count as minus points.
Attitude to Learning: at each reporting point in the year, the combination of attitude to learning grades within each house will be added up to generate a house total. The most points will be awarded for Highly Motivated grades, then Engaged, and so on.
Attendance: points will be awarded according to the average attendance within each year, broken down by House, with an overall attendance trophy for the house with the highest average attendance over the year. Every day a student turns up to school, they are not only helping themselves but also helping their house total!
Inter-House Competitions: the Poetry Competition, Senior Trek, and so on will all contribute points to the overall total. There are also plans for some exciting new competitions this year – watch this space!
House Matches: Team PE already keep running totals for these termly competitions. The points from each competition will contribute to the overall total; there will also be a trophy for winning the House Matches competition.
Sports Day: points are already awarded in Sports Day; these will contribute to the overall total, as well as the award of the Sports Day cup.

We’re really looking forward to the competition this year – and may the best House win!