House Systems for Under-Performing Schools
Posted by R. J. O’Hara for the Collegiate Way
7 June 2008 (collegiateway.org) — The improvement of secondary education is a perennial topic of discussion in many countries, certainly no less in Great Britain than in the United States. A story on the global news wires today, “Shape up or be shut, schools warned,” reports that the adoption of small, cross-sectional house systems is now being recommended as an important means of structural reform in under-performing British schools.
With £10,000 extra funding each [from the Extra Mile program of the UK government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families], these schools will adopt performance-boosting measures such as public school-style “house” systems, trips to cultural events and recruitment of people from local communities to act as mentors.
School house systems of this kind mirror the structure and life of a university residential college, just on a smaller scale.
