The House System
- There are seven Houses – Founders, Hervey, Oates, Tredgold, George Grey, Kestrel and Chubb, each comprising of the full range of year groups. Each House has Housemaster / Housemistress in charge who lives nearby and makes his / her presence felt about the House. Every Housemaster / Housemistress has a House Tutor and two assistant tutors, and other members of staff, who assist in duties.
- House Prefects – The Head of House is automatically a College Perfect and under him there are five or six house prefects, each of whom is in charge of a year group. Senior boys in the House are also required to take over various responsibilities.
- The Form One to Form Four year groups live in dormitories, overseen by a prefect whose study/bedroom is attached to the dormitory. Boys in the Lower and Upper Sixth live in their own Study/bedrooms.
- The House system is a competitive one, as Houses compete with each other in a range of activities such as singing drama, and the full range of sports. The Lower Sixth students are generally involved in the organisation of these inter-house competitions, thus assisting the Upper Sixth. This also gives them the training in organisation, assuming responsibility and being leaders. All these skills are needed when they become members of the Upper Sixth.
- Forms One to Four are responsible for cleaning their dormitories, making their beds, taking their clothes to the laundry and generally to help keep the House and its surrounds clean and tidy. The Lower Sixth clean their own studies while the Upper Sixth have study boys / girls drawn from Form Twos to help them.
The virtues of the House System are that boys / girls are taught discipline and responsibility. As they progress their privileges increase, as does their responsibility in the House. This helps develop leadership and man-management skills. The dormitory system allows boys / girls from very diverse backgrounds to live and work together and this fosters team spirit and camaraderie, while lasting and meaningful friendships are forged.