Lakewood School Unveils Harry Potter-Inspired House System

From Lakewood City Schools:

If it worked for Hogwarts, why not Roosevelt Elementary? Last week after much planning by the Roosevelt staff, a new student and staff house system was unveiled to the school community with exciting sessions of virtual wheel spinning where students found out which house they will call home and a kickoff all-school assembly to reveal staff house assignments and house expectations.

Roosevelt staff collaborated together for months to create five unique houses, which will include approximately 50 students and eight staff each with students mixed in from all grade levels. Students and staff will remain in that same house from year-to-year at Roosevelt, and new students will join a house when they begin at Roosevelt.

“We think of the houses as smaller families or communities within our school,” said Roosevelt Principal Allison Aber. “With this system, we will engage in healthy competition and spirit, and teach students how to contribute their efforts toward a group. Through this, we will build stronger student-student relationships, student-staff relationships, and school-wide community.”

Each house has a color, which are the colors of the five Olympic rings, and each house name is a valued trait in a language from a part of the continent represented by the colored ring. The houses are:

House of Amistad (red, friendship in Spanish)
House of Jijixing (yellow, positivity in Chinese)
House of Zoid (green, guardian in Hungarian)
House of Shupavu (black, strength in Swahili)
House of Corroboree (blue, dreamer in Aboriginal)

According to Principal Aber, students will get an opportunity to make individual contributions to their house each and every day. Extraordinary behaviors will be reinforced with tickets that collectively count toward his/her house total points. During this semester, houses will hold meetings where students and staff will get to know one another and learn about their house. There will also be a few assemblies where students of the month and staff are recognized and get a chance to earn bonus points for their house.

The excitement at schools was palpable with both students and staff as the new system was revealed through the fun digital wheel spin by grade level that assigned houses and the pep rally-like school assembly.

Staff and students alike are excited to move forward with this new aspect of their school. You can watch and see the excitement of the events in this video created by technology teacher Molly Spurlock.

“We are eager to create a culture of belonging where every staff and student is a part of something,” said Principal Aber.

This press release was produced by Lakewood City Schools. The views expressed here are the author's own.