An exciting and creative new student activity has emerged in the Homewood elementary schools. The “House” system sorts students into groups of all grade levels and interests within their schools where they participate in meetings, competitions and activities throughout the year.
The concept is wildly similar to the House System in the incredibly popular Harry Potter series. Students are sorted into their house their kindergarten year, and remain in their given group the remainder of their elementary school career. Instead of Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, the houses’ names are inspired by foreign words and cultural groups that define and embody the traits of each house.
The goal of these houses is to encourage student camaraderie across all grade levels and to allow the kids to develop pride and competitive spirit in relation to their given houses. This also provides a unique opportunity to build strong teacher-student relationships. However, the students are primarily encouraged to just have fun.
Dr. Wendy Story, principal at Shades Cahaba Elementary School commented on the system’s goals thus far, “We strongly believe that every child should have an adult advocate ” Story said after describing the benefits of the ability to form strong teacher-student bonds, “We’re aiming to build character and genuine friendships among our students.”
The house system replaced the prior “Nest Groups” at Shades Cahaba.They shared the same general concept to encourage community across all grade levels. However, the groups from 15-20 students only met in a meeting like setting, typically not including fun competitions and dress up days.
Story said the house system, with roughly 75 students in each group, will include more interactive activities based events in addition to house meetings. This includes house color dress up days, movie and bingo nights, games and more. Throughout the year, Shades Cahaba will also be implementing a house point system similar to that in the Harry Potter series where student’s houses will be rewarded with points when they perform acts of good character. The house with the most points at the end of the year will receive a big prize.
Edgewood and Hall Kent Elementary School adopted the house system in 2021, and it’s been a great success at both schools. Emma Claire Johnson, first grade teacher at Edgewood Elementary School, described the impact that the new system has had on her own students, “Younger students get to interact with fifth graders,” Johnson said, “It’s created a really positive environment, it’s something special for the kids to look forward to.” She believes that the system has fulfilled its purpose to really encourage kids to be kids, and to have character development opportunities along the way.
The system was inspired by that of the Ron-Clark Academy in Atlanta, Ga. which created the vision originally. The system is slowly spreading to schools around the country with the Homewood elementary schools being some of the first to fully adopt it. The future of the system looks very promising to provide years of development and fun for students throughout their time in K-5.
