Houses
School Houses were introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, with each House having its own name and colour. Nightingale mauve, Kingsley green, Fry pale blue and Browning brown. By the 1930s there were awards given for winning competitions against other houses in sports. In the beginning there were House notices in the Playroom and a strict House conduct system.
In 1939 four more Houses were added and they were renamed after the different royal Houses (Windsor, Stuart, Tudor, Hanover, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Normandy).
In the 1970s the houses were rearranged again and given names of precious stones (Amethyst, Coral, Garnet and Topaz) because of the school's proximity to the Jewellery Quarter.
At the end of the 1990s they were renamed once more after famous women (Bronte, Pankhurst, Franklin and Nightingale), then when an extra form group was introduced in 2003, then un-introduced in 2005, a new house was created; (Curie). In September 2009 the houses were renamed, once again after famous women. (Parks, Keller, Astor and Cavell)
Read more about this topic: King Edward VI Handsworth
Famous quotes containing the word houses:
“Spooky things happen in houses densely occupied by adolescent boys. When I checked out a four-inch dent in the living room ceiling one afternoon, even the kid still holding the baseball bat looked genuinely baffled about how he possibly could have done it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“The spectacle of misery grew in its crushing volume. There seemed to be no end to the houses full of hunted starved children. Children with dysentery, children with scurvy, children at every stage of starvation.... We learned to know that the barometer of starvation was the number of children deserted in any community.”
—Mary Heaton Vorse (1874–1966)
“Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)