The Houses
The House system is a feature common to Public schools. The House systems have great advantages of breaking a large community into smaller, more personal units, and thereby building a sense of loyalty and competition.
The formation of Houses in Bishop Cotton may have occurred during 1910 since the Cotton Mill, 1910 makes a mention of "Puchi teams! Puchi marks!" . Pu-chi means insects. There were 125 students in school then and six teams were formed. The Pu-chi teams were named - Jerrimangalams, Bloodsuckers, Scorpions, White Ants and Cobras. Each team was led by a captain, and boys were grouped as 'big', 'medium sized' and 'little'. The Pu-chi teams were in place till 1933.
New houses were formed by combining -
- The Scorpions and Cobras as Pettigrew House
- The White Ants and Jerrimangalams as Pope House
- The Bloodsuckers and Mosquito as Pakenham-Walsh House
These names were assumed after the three pioneers of the school. Each team had a Head and a Captain of Games. In 1956, a fourth House was added which was named after Canon Elphick who was Warden from 1930 - 1955. Many boys volunteered to join the new House and all new admissions to the school automatically were added to this House. In 1996, a fifth House - Thomas House was formed.
- Pettigrew House The house is named after Rev. S. T. Pettigrew, Chaplain of St. Mark's Cathedral and founder of the school.
- Pope House The house is named after Rev. George Uglow Pope, the first warden of the School, 1871 - 1882. He came to the School from The Nilgiris and is remembered beyond the bounds of the School as a great scholar in Tamil. Rev. Pope gave the School its motto, "Nec Dextrorsum Nec Sinistrorsum".
- Pakenham-Walsh House The house was named after the Rt. Rev. Herbert Pakenham-Walsh in 1933. The Rev. Pakenham-Walsh left the wardenship of the School in 1913 and became the first Bishop of Assam in 1915.
- Elphick House Elphick House was formed in 1956 and was named after Canon Elphick, Warden from 1930 - 1955. Canon Elphick came to the School from Oxford Brotherhood in Calcutta, India.
- Thomas House This house was formed in memory of the late Rev. Iowerth Lowell Thomas who was the Warden from 1956 to 1970.
Read more about this topic: Bishop Cotton Boys' School
Famous quotes containing the word houses:
“Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see people. If you stay but a week at a place, and that an insignificant one, see, however, all that is to be seen there; know as many people, and get into as many houses as ever you can.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Nothing will be left white but here a birch,
And there a clump of houses with a church.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)