THE HISTORY OF THE RGS HOUSE SYSTEM

Do you know the names of the eight Houses in the 1960s? Or that we currently have a thriving House system, which aims to develop student leadership and integration across all ages? Discover where it all began and how internal and external forces have shaped the House system over the years.

Houses are a quirky feature of the traditional British school system. Presumably, it was originally conceived in boarding schools where a House would represent a group of students physically billeted in a particular set of dormitories or buildings. But, apart from a small number of boarders, a practice that had ceased by the Second World War, RGS has never been a true boarding school.

The House system dates from 1909, when the comparatively recently created County Council authorities provided grants, or bursaries, to children who had passed through their state primary education and had reached a sufficiently high level of academic competence to progress to grammar schools such as RGS. In this way, the number of boys attending RGS grew rapidly from the 1890s, and a House system was seen as a good way to organise the boys into identifiable groups where they could mix with others of different ages and experience the values of teamwork and loyalty to an entity additional to that of the school itself.

Starting with eight houses

Initially, there were eight Houses, each one named after the masters who were appointed to run them. One can immediately see a flaw in this system, as it depended on the House masters not leaving the school for another post, which would then have required the appointment of a new master and a change of House name! The introduction of a House system is mentioned in The Pilgrim issue 29 for September 1909, in a section reporting on school football:

“For the sake of improving football generally the school has been divided into Houses, eight in number, each named after a master, and captained by a member of the 1st XI. Two very keen games have been played so far. We hope to report fully on the House scheme next term. The Old Boys’ Club has generously presented a shield to be held by the winning House at the end of the season. We thank them for their sporting gift.”

Issue 30 of The Pilgrim contains a brief mention of the new House system in its editorial:

“The House matches have proved a great success in the main object, viz: to give more opportunity to the younger boys to distinguish themselves. It is, however, a pity that many Houses have lost important members since last term.”

In news of the Old Boys’ Club, we learn that former students of the school were doing their bit to promote interHouse sport:

“During the end of last year, it was decided by the Committee as a result of a ballot of the Club members, to present a challenge cup to the school, to be held yearly by the House team which obtained the highest points in the football competition. This was handed to Mr Howarth at the dinner and is in the form of a handsome plated vase, with figures of footballers embossed on it.”

The Houses were named Mr Calistri’s, Mr Eade’s, Mr Dawson’s, Mr Hall’s, Mr Howarth’s, Mr Wade’s, Mr Ward’s, and Mr Reeve’s.

Eight became four

It appears that within 12 months of the new Houses being established, a serious problem had already manifested itself, in that key members of some Houses were leaving, and younger, less experienced, boys had the unenviable task of playing football against much better players in Houses that still retained key players. This suggests that the Houses were too small and this in turn made them highly vulnerable when just a few boys left the school. As we are no longer cognisant of how boys were allocated to each House, we cannot be certain whether this would have made some Houses more vulnerable to this problem, but it is entirely possible that this is the case.

Whatever shortcomings had become apparent, it was only in 1912 that the

“For the sake of improving football generally the school has been divided into Houses, eight in number, each named after a master, and captained by a member of the 1st XI.” problem was addressed, when the number of Houses was halved to four, and the boys were allocated to each House mainly by considering the area of the borough in which they lived. Thus, were formed the Houses Priory, Doods, Redstone and Wray, each being a historic district or manor within the borough.

Issue 32 of The Pilgrim, in October 1912, explained the change as follows:

“The House system has been modified owing to certain difficulties which have proved inseparable from it. With eight small divisions the House Captains found it exceedingly difficult on many occasions to form a team. The fortunes of a House depended too much on a few of its most important members who had a habit of leaving in batches and little boys had to play with some much older and stronger to the advantage of neither. The apportionment of new boys was also a matter of difficulty. The present system of four larger divisions, according to area, should remove most of these disabilities. It is hoped to form both a 1st and 2nd XI in each House, so that boys may be assorted according to prowess.”

This is how the Houses continued for many years. Inter-House competitions were mostly of a sporting nature, reflecting the mix of activities promoted by the school at the time, so initially football, changing to rugby, and also cricket, and other activities such as shooting and athletics.

From an early date, soon after the formation of the four new Houses in 1912, Mr. Calistri, Master for one of the original Houses and then still a teacher at the school, donated a new cup to be awarded to the House with the best overall schoolwork results, and this continued to be awarded at least until 1982, with no further reference in The Pilgrim after that year. Latterly, there was more a greater emphasis on inter-House quizzes and chess competitions.

More students, more Houses

With the expansion of the school as a result of a greater influx of boys following the passing of the Education Act 1944, a further four Houses were added in 1951. By this time, there were 540 boys attending the school. The creation of the new Houses was achieved by splitting the four existing houses in two, creating Underhill with boys from Doods, Kinnersley from Priory, Linkfield from

Redstone, and Northdown from Wray. The House activities continued pretty much as before.

The Pilgrim from Spring 1951 stated: “As [each] House is smaller, so it is more compact and more conscious that it is a distinct part of the school. This is emphasized by the House prayers which are held once a week. Of course, teams will be doubly difficult to field, but this will ensure that more boys will play an active part in the House competitions.”

Throughout some fifty years, each year a number of House-based competitions were arranged, and this provided an ongoing raison d’être for the House system to continue. These were largely but not exclusively sport-related. Thus, the eight-House system continued more or less unchanged until the end of the century when the decision was made to scrap it.

The abolition of the house system occurred during the headmastership of Paul Dixon. This was during the first years of a fully coeducation intake, but at that time there still weren’t enough girls to go around to field sports teams. This created the opposite problem that had arisen decades earlier, when the then four houses were just too large to allow the majority of pupils to participate in house activities. However, rather than reduce the number of houses to increase the available pool of girls for team members in each house, the decision was made to get rid of houses altogether, the justification being that a traditional house system was considered an obsolete element of a modern school. At the time, the decision was not universally popular however.

The current House system

This was not the end of the story, however, as a new House system was brought back in 2013 by RGS’s current Headmaster. This time, there were four Houses, named after former Headmasters of the school, the names having been chosen by ballot by the school students themselves. The Houses are: Bird (Rev. John Bird MA 1708-1728), Cranston (Rev. Andrew Cranston MA 1697-1708), Hodgson (Rev. Joseph Hodgson MA 1800-1842) and Williamson (Rev. John Williamson MA 1684-1697).

Students are allocated to both a House and a House family when entering the school. House families span all ages and contain approximately twenty students per family. Houses aim to increase the student voice at RGS, and many ideas are discussed and put forward as students feel more confident holding discussions in small family groups.

As in the previous incarnations of Houses, there are regular inter-House competitions involving creative and intellectual challenges as well as a wide range of sport-based activities. These include singing, drama, art, gun run, bake-off, debating and chess. Each year a cup is awarded to the House achieving the greatest level of success across the board.