Houses
At St James Primary we have four Houses and the children are allocated to one when they join the school. Children are given Housepoints for good behaviour and for being a good role-model for others. We appoint eight House Captains from Y6 in September. who lead their Houses throughout the year (more details about that below).
Our Houses are named Ellis, Reffold, Tilson and Young. The names were selected, with help from the School Council, in July 2018. The Houses are named after four former pupils of the school who sadly lost their lives in World War 1. This was the perfect way for us to commemorate the fallen as part of our World War 1 centenary work in 2018:
George Charles Ellis
George Reffold
Ernest Tilson
Harold Young
We will remember them.
Each House has a motto, chosen by the House Captains in 2019.
Young: Be brave, be Young!
Tilson: The sky's the limit!
Ellis: Striving to be the best!
Reffold: Live to leap!
House captains & Head Pupils
Each House has two House Captains who are appointed in July, ready for the following year. The children apply for the role using an application form and covering letter. We shortlist 16 children with the strongest applications and then interview them formally. We believe this gives the children a fair chance, whilst experiencing a formal interview for the first time.
From these interviews we also appoint two Head Pupils who help to guide the House Captains and assist in the running of the school, including the School Council.
HousepointS
We have a new token system for Housepoints. Each house has a token of their colour and when a Housepoint is awarded, the child puts their Housepoint in the corresponding pot. Once a week these tokens are delivered by the children to the library collection point where the House Captains count them up.
CoMpetitions
Every half term we run a different inter-house competition. This helps the children build skills in a variety of areas whilst inviting them to bring out the best of their team spirit and resilience. Inter-house competitions also give children extra chances to work with peers from different year groups within our school.
Each child and member of staff has their own house T-shirt which is worn on special House occasions, as seen below.
2022 - 2023 competitions:
We have five Inter-House Competitions every year:
Competition Half Term 1
HM King Charles III Artwork – on A5 paper, design the new King a crown that represents not only the nations of the United Kingdom, but the Commonwealth as a whole.
Letter Out: Thursday 29th September
Assembly Launch: Monday 3rd October
Deadline: Friday 14th October
Judging: Tuesday 18th October
Results: Thursday 21st October House T-shirts required
The artwork was sent to Buckingham Palace!
Competition Half Term 2
Inter-House Quiz
Quiz held on Friday 16th December House T-shirts required
Competition Half Term 3
Photographer of the Year - Theme - Thank You
Launch: Monday 16th January
Deadline: Friday 3rd February
Judging: Tuesday 7th February
Results: Thursday 9th February House T-shirts required
Photographs will be displayed in the library
Competition Half Term 4
St James Bake Off 2023 - Theme 'Personal Heritage'
Launch: Monday 20th February
Heats and judging: Monday 6th March followed by cake sale
Finalists announced: Friday 10th March (during Celebration Assembly)
Final Bake Day: Thursday 23rd March [Judging on Friday 24th March]
Staff Bake Off: Wednesday 29th March
All Final Results: Wednesday 29th March House T-shirts required
Competition Half Term 5
Sports Day 2022 - Thursday 25th May House T-shirts required
Reserve Sports Day - Thursday 15th June
2022 - 2023 House Lunches
- Spring House T-shirts required
- Summer House T-shirts required
FLAGS
The PTA kindly donated the funds for us to purchase a unique flag for each House. We use the flags when rambling on the common as a whole school, at our termly house lunches (where the children eat in their house groups rather than classes) and at Sports Day.
The House that wins the inter-house competition also gets their flag raised on our school flagpole; victory for the whole village to see!
The J Factor
Whilst the J Factor is no longer a House competition, we still celebrate our talents every year during our school talent show. Years 3 to 6 can audition for the show, usually in April, and the finalists perform for the whole school where they are judged by an impartial panel - usually School Governors.
Previous winners include pianists, singers, and most recently 'ice' skating (but using roller blades!) But let us not forget when Yolky the scooting chicken made an appearance too!
Previous competitions:
- World War 1 - 100 (artwork created to commemorate the end of WWI)
- The Big St James Quiz (general knowledge quiz with questions from the Sports Crew)
- Photographer of the Year (in conjunction with the Elstead Gardening Club)
- The St James Bake Off (two rounds of baking)
- Sports Day (the highly contested, traditional sports day)
- School Flag Design competition
- Tackling Food Waste (design a solution to wasting food at St James Primary)
Other competitions have included a swimming gala, French work, promoting French speaking places and an engineering challenge to create a strong paper bridge!