Memories of St. Edward's School Houses

When I joined the school in 1945 the four houses were named after Saints. There was St Pauls, St Lukes,  and I think St Peter and St John, although I am a bit hazy on the last two.

 Just after Dr. Davies arrived on the scene, the four houses were renamed as Cook,  Wykeham,  Mildmay  and Bosworth.

 St Paul's became Cooke and bore the colour blue. The system was arranged whereby each house had a House Captain and a House Secretary.

 The House Captain’s responsibilities were to be overall leader especially in regard to sports activities.

 The House Secretary (I was I think the first one to hold the position for Cook) had a large ledger. This was divided with a double page for each Form. On the left of the Form’s page would be listed all the pupils in Cook in that particular Form (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A 4B). Across, the page was divided for the date week ending. At the rear of the ledger was provision for grand totals Weekly, Monthly and Annually.

 In any particular Form, pupils would be awarded Class Points for good work in their various subjects. When they produced outstanding work they could obtain a Merit Mark, a De Merit could also be imposed for bad behaviour etc.

 In each form there was one pupil for each House who would keep a tally for his House of all Merits, DeMerits and Class Points awarded to members of his house in that form. These Form records were kept in an exercise book.

 Each week the House Secretary would visit each form and obtain from the Form Representative totals of Merits and Class Points etc. These were then entered Form by Form in the ledger. They were then all totalled up and the ledger was submitted by the House Secretary to the House Master.

 Once a week in assembly an announcement would be made giving the House Scores and the House that had gained the most Merits and Points would be posted as the leading House for that week. There were also Monthly Winners and Terms winners etc.

 The House Ledger of course was also a source of information regarding individual pupil’s progress and ability. The accuracy of the record keeping was subject to ‘audit’ by the House Secretary and House master from time to time.

 The Houses competed against each other in the above way as well as sporting activities. We never found that the House System was unfair regarding winners and losers (present viewpoint). I for instance was the least sports inclined boy you would ever meet. In P.T., which I used to dread, I could never get over the vaulting horse much to the amusement of my classmates. I thought kicking a ball around was pointless (although I enjoyed our makeshift ice hockey games on the frozen waste land at the school’s rear.) I was abysmal at sports. But I earned Merit marks for the manner in which I kept the House Ledger, in fact more that even the best football player we had, I guess it’s a case of horses for courses. The system overall encouraged us to try harder and achieve more.

D.B. 2008

Anne Tickle

Dennis Batten

(1945 to 1949)

House System