School Houses

The House system is a key part of the School’s pastoral care.

PRE PREP AND JUNIOR SCHOOL

Pre Prep and Junior School pupils are allocated to one of four Houses: Hanovers, Stuarts, Tudors and Windsors. Each house has a tie in its own colour. Children will remain in their nominated House until the end of Junior School. There is no connection between the Houses in the Junior School and Senior School.

House points are awarded by teachers for effort, good work, improved work, behaviour or attitude, helpful or responsible actions and contributions through clubs, activities and sports teams. There is keen competition to be the leading House. House points for Junior School pupils are recorded at the back of their Homework Diary and on classroom charts in the Pre Prep.

SENIOR SCHOOL

The focal point of pupils’ lives in the Senior School is their House. There are four day Houses: Caswalls’, Lambourne, Penn’s and Swallow’s. These Houses are both the centre for pastoral support and the place where competitions, sporting and social activities are organised. Each House has a tie and sports shirt or vest in its own colours. A separate House Tutor is responsible for each year group within the House and is the first point of contact for parents with any queries or concerns.

The names of the four Senior School Houses commemorate distinguished Chigwell figures of the past:

CASWALLS’ is named after five distinguished brothers who attended Chigwell School in the 1820s, the most eminent being Edward, poet and famous hymn-writer.

LAMBOURNE is named after Colonel Mark Lockwood, who later became Lord Lambourne. He was Chairman of Governors from 1893 to 1922 and was a local landowner and reformer.

PENN’S is named after William Penn (1644-1718) who was a pupil at Chigwell from 1653 to 1656. Well connected, he became a Quaker and renounced a promising career at Court in order to dedicate his life to propagating his vision of a tolerant and humane society in which war and conflict would play no part. In 1682, Penn founded the city of Philadelphia.

SWALLOW’S is named after Canon Richard Dawson Swallow who was Headmaster of Chigwell School from 1876 to 1911. The reputation of the School was much enhanced by Swallow, who is often described as the first headmaster of the “new régime”.