House systems exist in most primary schools but represent an often-overlooked opportunity. When strategically reimagined, they have the potential to transform student engagement, drive leadership, and lift school performance.
With three children each of similar ages attending the same primary school, Ms Petrina Jones and Ms Karen Dimattina’s paths crossed frequently. But what began as casual conversations about their children’s experiences soon evolved into something more. Their connection wasn’t just about idle chat at school drop-off and pick-up – they discovered a mutual scepticism toward the viability of a traditional House system functioning effectively in this day and age.
While Ms Dimattina’s sporty children thrived in competitive environments, Ms Jones’ more creative children felt disconnected from House events, which typically revolved around sporting pursuits.
These conversations became the catalyst for their collaborative vision which ultimately led to the creation of Our House Spirit, a program that utilises a more modernised version of the traditional House system, one that is well-matched with the needs of present-day students and fulfils the targets of today’s primary schools, as the vessel to improve student outcomes through enhanced engagement, community connection, purposeful leadership and the instigation of a strong sense of fellowship and belonging.
“We used to talk a lot about the traditional House system and how archaic it was in this day-and-age of inclusiveness and social behaviours,” Ms Dimattina says.
Traditionally, House systems have overwhelmingly favoured athletic students, which has created significant challenges for children with diverse interests.
Swimming, cross country, athletics, tabloid sports – House days focused on sport as the singular interest and rarely celebrated art, music, drama, singing, dancing, maths, reading or writing.
“It is unfortunate that a percentage of primary students don’t look forward to House days at school. Some experience anxiety about being expected to participate in competitive events,” Ms Jones says.
The pair decided to act, founding Our House Spirit in 2012. Their professional backgrounds provided the perfect foundation for reimagining the House system. Ms Dimattina, with experience in corporate training, and Ms Jones, coming from advertising and production, saw an opportunity for meaningful change.
Extensive research revealed a critical insight: the most successful House systems are student-led.
“We saw an opening to incorporate a student leadership program into our revamped House system that would have a positive flow-on and effect throughout the whole school,” Ms Dimattina says.
Their vision was to create what they termed an ‘effervescent House system’ – a vibrant, inclusive framework that would engage students across multiple interests.
“Our reimagined House system not only benefits students by offering a variety of activities,” Ms Jones says, “it also helps schools reach their targets around student voice, whole school engagement, leadership, positive social behaviours, and respectful relationships.”
Progressively build student leadership
Ironically, Ms Dimattina says, many school Houses are named after a celebrated sportsperson, like Cathy Freeman, or Donald Bradman. Often, students don’t know who those sporting ‘heroes’ are, or why the House is named in their honour. Naming Houses after sporting identities does not offer something that all students can connect to.
“And Houses should be for everyone,” Ms Jones states. “Why should only the sporty students experience a strong sense of connection and belonging? What about the creative kids?”.
“If we visit a school and find their House names have a strong sports theme, we create an identity around those names based on those people’s values, such as persistence, or resilience, so it takes the focus away from being a ‘sporty’ House and adds values that other students can relate to,” Ms Dimattina says.
Targeting engagement, leadership, and wellbeing, Our House Spirit’s effervescent House system model enhances every student’s overall learning experience by manifesting a school environment in which students can truly excel. The approach isn’t just about creating fun activities, but about developing a comprehensive framework for student growth.
As part of their research, Ms Dimattina and Ms Jones looked at how secondary schools structure their House systems.
“Some hire large auditoriums to run their House music and drama competitions – and they are led by 17 and 18-year-old students. We researched how they run their House systems, and we developed it into a program that a 12-year-old could run. The students are completely empowered. Everything’s structured with them creating it themselves, and the impact is way bigger because of that,” they say.
Their program strategically enhances school-wide positive behaviours and introduces and builds leadership skills from prep to grade six, with each level introducing age-appropriate concepts. From community understanding in prep to strategic problem solving in grade six, the system creates a progressive, inclusive approach to student development.
“When we go into a school, we deliver workshops with the student leadership team to create innovative and inclusive House activities,” Ms Dimattina says.
Limited by how many schools they can physically get to, they’re now expanding their reach with a larger online presence, so more schools can unlock the potential of their existing House system.
“Our online House Library features numerous House activities for each year level, whole school House events, and student leadership workshops – schools can run these workshops repeatedly with a different outcome each time,” Ms Dimattina says.
“For schools that want to let their student leaders log in and find an activity that already has an event kit, they can access a series of videos and worksheets to create a particular activity.”
“Also, each House event and workshop is accompanied with ready-made lesson plans for schools to use in their student leadership meetings,” Ms Jones says.
“These plans are a great time-saving resource for teachers and help them instil the activity topic and generate productive leadership meetings.”
House Spirit Day, where students create a whole-school two-hour House event, is Our House Spirit’s signature workshop.
“We get a lot of feedback from schools about the inclusive environment it creates, how many different types of interests are brought into the one event day,” Ms Jones says.
While schools can opt to purchase individual online workshops, or activities, the best value for money is a House Library membership, which provides access to all Our House Spirit’s resources.
“Our membership model gives schools the ultimate outcome: an effervescent House system that enhances every student’s overall learning experience. A membership is also more cost-effective and builds ongoing engagement, because schools cannot build an effervescent House system in one year alone,” Ms Dimattina says. “It’s an ongoing process that changes depending on the students leading it that year.”
This philosophy underscores their commitment to flexibility and student empowerment.
What began as conversations between two parents about the differing interests and levels of engagement of their children has evolved into a comprehensive educational approach.
Our House Spirit represents more than a program, they say, it’s a reimagining of how schools can create meaningful, inclusive communities that celebrate every student’s unique strengths and ultimately improve student outcomes.
Visit www.ourhousespirit.com.au for more information.
