House system

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The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries. The school is divided into units called "houses" and each student is allocated to one house at the moment of enrollment. Houses may compete with one another at sports and maybe in other ways, thus providing a focus for group loyalty.

Historically, the house system has been associated with public schools in England, especially boarding schools, where a "house" referred to a boarding house at the school. In this case, the housemaster or housemistress in charge of the house is in loco parentis to the pupils who live in it, even though the house normally has a separate "private side" in which he or she can live a family life.^[1] Such an arrangement still continues in most boarding schools, while in day schools the word house is likely to refer to a grouping of pupils, rather than to a particular building.

Schools have different numbers of houses, with different numbers of students in each, depending on the arrangements adopted by the schools. Facilities, such as pastoral care, may be provided on a house basis.^{[This paragraph needs citation(s)]}

Houses may be named after saints, famous historical alumni or notable regional topics (e.g. in international schools, houses are sometimes named in honour of local celebrities). Former British royal houses (dynasties) are also popular in the UK, those most often used are the Houses of Lancaster, York, Tudor and Stuart. Other more arbitrary names—animal names or colours, for example—are also often used. Houses are also often referred to by the original name of the building or by the name or initials of the housemistress or housemaster. Each house will usually also be identified by its own symbol, logo, or colours.

At co-educational boarding schools, there may be separate houses for boys and girls, as at the Lawrenceville School, whose house system is itself based on that of Rugby School. Students may also be grouped by year groups or status as boarders or day students. At Winchester College and Eton College, there is a separate house for foundation scholars. Where the school has boarders and day pupils like the King's School, Canterbury or Shrewsbury School, they will often be allocated to separate houses. There have also been cases, for example at Cheltenham College, of pupils being allocated to different houses according to their religion. At traditional full boarding schools such as Radley College and Harrow School, students are grouped by boarding house.^{[This paragraph needs citation(s)]}