Houses?! At school? Yes. But no to your next question. No, we do not play quidditch.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of houses, I'll explain how it works at our school. Every other week, the houses meet together for a house meeting in place of an all school assembly. All year, students and the houses are in a never ending competition for house points! It makes for a great behavior reward system already built into the way our school runs! Students earn points for anything from greeting and helping teachers to getting 20/20 on their spelling test! In my class, when a student earns a "Super Student," they receive 10 house points. Once a student has earned 60 house points, they earn a "Simba" and receive recgonition at the lower primary assembly. If they earn 3 Simbas in a Term, they earn a GOLD Simba! This is just the beginning...
Every week, a book is passed around where each classroom teacher records which house is in the lead for house points out of the students from their class. It is then tallied up and each week we see the points increase, curiously wondering which class is in the lead! At the end of every term, the winning house is announced at an all school closing day assembly. And at the end of the year, the house with the most total points wins the trophy! This is the house points trophy that gets passed to the winning house each year. Not only do the houses compete, students individually compete for the most total house points. At the end of each term, the students with the most house points will be announced at the end of term closing assembly.
Along with all the buzz of collecting and earning house points, there are also inter-house competitions. Term 1 does not have a specific inter-house competition. At the end of Term 2, there is a big Swimming Gala (Swim Meet) between all the houses. The Term 3 excitement in a Track and Field Day where all the houses compete. Every house comes out in their house t-shirts and school shorts, decked out in ribbons, face paint, holding up their house flags and any other signs, chanting and practicing multiple cheers!!!
Today we had our end of Term 2 Inter-house Swimming Gala and it was a blast! The three year winning steak of Zambezi house was broken and Zambezi came in last. Luangwa (my house) was ahead by 20+ points half way in and winning most of the races and relays but was just barely swept by 2 points! Kafue were the winners and held the trophy proudly!!! I was a place judge along with 6 other teachers. Everything went really smoothly and had a great time. Enjoy some photos!
I led last House Meeting for Luangwa House. It was poetry week so we made an acrostic poem for Luangwa together! Some of the House Captains and the House Mistress added gold stars, covered it in plastic and hung it up under our pin!
Facing the tents where the three houses stay to cheer on their team/housemates!
Two beautiful ladies recording all the points!!
Walking over from class to the gala!!!
I had just attached ribbons to the top of my hat so I was checking to see how it looked and then it turned into a class selfie!