There is a vibrant house system at OVS, including children from Nursery right through the school to Year 6. We have four houses called Amber, Derwent, Dove and Wye. There are weekly and termly house competitions for children. These include the House Music Competition as well as sporting events.
At the Old Vicarage School pupils are placed into one of 4 pastoral Houses – Amber, Derwent, Dove and Wye. The Houses are named after our local rivers and are represented by the colours yellow, red, blue and green respectively.
All members of the same family i.e. brothers and sisters are placed in the same House, for their time at the Old Vicarage School. Each House is run by a Class Teacher and is assisted by a Year 6 pupil. This pupil is elected House Captain by fellow House members in an annual vote.
Meetings take place once per week and House groups work together for competitions throughout the academic year. Whole school events include House Music and Sports Day, amongst others. Behaviour over and above expectations earns ‘Coins’. Each House counts up the ‘Coins’ achieved by members during a week and the winning House points can be gained by awarding special house ‘coins’ for positive individual efforts both inside and outside the classroom. When awarding a coin it should be remembered that what may be a miniscule achievement for one child, is a big step forward for another, and the reward should be appropriate to the child’s individual effort.
Coins can be awarded for excellent academic achievement or improved effort, for acts of kindness or service to others or notable endeavour in any aspect of school life. Coin totals are collected and recorded weekly for each child and an overall total is recorded for each house. Children are informed of overall weekly totals and individual children’s highest totals each week at the Friday Awards Assembly. The House that collects the highest number of coins over a term is treated to a party and pizza lunch together.
