The House System
House Standings
There are four houses that make up the house system at Westhaven. These are named after the 4 elements: Earth – the green house, Air – the yellow house, Fire – the red house and Water – the blue house.
Each house has a mascot, song, and prop that represents their house. We have ensured variety to build on developing each team’s individual identity.
The house system aims to build an environment where our learners feel like valued members of their school, to inspire our learners to challenge their self-beliefs, and to support them in feeling prepared for their future adventures.
Our house challenges encourage positive self-esteem and promote our school vision and values. The introduction of the house system has also instigated the opportunity for a selection of our learners to take on leadership roles as Heads of Houses.
Safely independent:
Our house system supports learners in becoming safely independent by:
- Giving choice
- Introducing cooperative learning
- Targeting priorities
- Goal setting
- Showing appreciation
- Engaging in a rewards initiative
- Providing ‘self teach’ time
- Developing fine motor skills
Confident communicators:
Our house challenges develop learners’ ability to be confident communicators by:
- Providing teamwork opportunities
- Introducing role play
- Developing literacy skills
- Engaging students in numeracy
- Giving chances to present
- Teaching empathy and respect
Respectful citizens:
We aim to advance our learner’s capability to be respectful citizens by:
- Fostering a nurturing and respectful team atmosphere
- Encouraging community-based activities
- Introducing charity works
- Highlighting our British values
- Discussing environmental matters
- Exploring national news and topics
Resilient learners:
We aim to progress learners’ resilience to learning by:
- Encouraging evolving from mistakes
- Allowing time for trial and error
- Giving opportunities to explore new topics
- Building learners’ confidence in their abilities
- Highlighting learners skillset
Inquisitive thinkers:
House events aim to support our learners to become inquisitive thinkers by:
- Expanding on curriculum knowledge and topics
- Providing opportunities to explore their interests
- Nurturing creativity and expression
- Problem-solving tasks
- Introducing Investigations
- Fostering a Growth mindset
Our house events have four main focus areas:
Academic: House events with an academic focus allow learners to target improving a specific academic skill. These skills will focus on supporting learners in developing academic writing, group work, reading, quantitative and listening skills. The aim of these are to continue their progression towards being qualification and work-ready.
Sport: Sports-based house events allow learners to develop and showcase their physical and fine motor skills. Whether it’s a specific sport based challenge such as Football, a skill based competition or Sports Day we aim to provide a variety of opportunities for learners to compete in a safe and supportive environment. Alongside supporting students in maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle.
The arts: We have launched a selection of arts-based house challenges to inspire learners to get creative in a range of different media. We aim to introduce a variety of different texts, scenarios, illustrators and artists in our goal to expand learners’ creativity, gross and fine motor skills.
Community: The aim of introducing community-based challenges is to engage learners in supporting and developing their school and wider community. Community tasks are intended to foster a connection between learners and their community, to encourage character building, supply team-building opportunities and allow learners to give back to their immediate environment.
Book of the term
This year we have introduced a secondary challenge to our house events that is linked to our chosen book of the term. The aim of these challenges is to encourage learners to explore a variety of different genres, authors, and illustrators. We encourage learners to analyze new text, apply personal perspectives, and get creative with their understanding through a variety of practical challenges.
Timetable of events
Winners of the Term
