House System
Fairbairn operates a comprehensive intramural or interhouse competition. The aims of the house system are to encourage a spirit of friendly competition and sportsmanship within the College, involve as many learners as possible, especially those who are not good enough at sport to be chosen for inter-school events, build up the Esprit de Corps of the College and create positions of leadership for learners and thereby promote their personal growth. To this end, the school is divided into three houses.
The houses to which learners are allocated are Grey (White), Somerset (Blue) and Napier (Red). The houses are named after Sir George Grey, Lord Charles Somerset and Sir George Thomas Napier, British governors of the Cape Colony in the 1800s.
The highlight of the year is the Interhouse Athletics Competition comprising track and field events. This together with the Swimming Gala is held in the first term.
In addition to competitions in all the major sports, an interhouse quiz, in which every learner participates, is held in the third term.
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Famous quotes containing the words house and/or system:
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That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. The House That Jack Built (l. 4–6)
“There are obvious places in which government can narrow the chasm between haves and have-nots. One is the public schools, which have been seen as the great leveler, the authentic melting pot. That, today, is nonsense. In his scathing study of the nation’s public school system entitled “Savage Inequalities,” Jonathan Kozol made manifest the truth: that we have a system that discriminates against the poor in everything from class size to curriculum.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)