House system Each boy is allocated to one of eight Day Houses, becoming a member ‘for life’ under the guidance of their Housemaster. Brothers, sons and grandsons follow each other into the same House, a tradition which encourages a fierce but healthy loyalty. The House system also supports the pastoral care of the boys by ensuring that each of them identifies with a smaller ‘vertical’ community, made up of pupils from every Year group from Year 3 to Year 13, within the wider College community. There are inter-House competitions in numerous sporting and cultural activities including: Music, Art, Photography, Poetry Recitation, Art, Chess, Debating, General Knowledge, Drama, Cross Country, Athletics, Football, Hockey, Cricket, Rugby and Patball. Lower School House colours are awarded to a boy for an outstanding contribution to the House during his time in the Lower School. “What I like best is being in a school where I have teachers that I can talk to whenever I want.”
Charity and Service It is a great privilege to be a member of the College community, but with this privilege comes the important responsibility of considering the wider community in which we live, both on a national and international scale. To this end, all pupils are encouraged to run events to raise money for a wide range of causes and get involved in charitable activities. For the past two years, we have supported The Ugandan Schools Project (TUSP) where our charity reps have also had a chance to do a cultural exchange with pupils in Uganda. Charity events have included penalty shoot outs, watching live World Cup matches, a sponsored ‘no homework’ day, and many more creative ideas which raise funds and get large numbers of boys involved. We also have a day each year which is wholly dedicated to service which involves all Senior School pupils helping in the community such as clearing areas of local parks, litter picking or volunteering in primary schools. Service and empathy are an important part of our ethos and it is very pleasing to see pupils so willing to think about charitable giving and how they can best serve their wider community with such maturity.
Ties
The College colours are black and blue, and these are used on the standard College tie. Boys, however, can be awarded ties for contributions to activities, such as Sport, Music or Drama, as well as being awarded a tie by the various societies in the College. Collecting a range of such ties is very popular with pupils (there are over 80 different ties!) and they are worn with pride. “One of my favourite things is the number of ties on offer; this allows boys to express themselves and show what they enjoy doing.”
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