Houses at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls were only introduced in 2015 under the Headship of Miss Biddie O’Connor. Traditionally all intra school competitions had been between forms or Middle vs Upper School.
The Steering Committee
In September 2014 a steering committee of teaching staff headed by Mr Andrew Doe was established to look into the possibility of introducing a House system. He takes up the story:
“A venture of this sort marks something of a departure for a school which has only had a tradition of Forms (all named after forms of the letter A). It was clear from the outset that any scheme would have to be thought through carefully.
What did we hope to gain from introducing Houses? In the first place, everyone on the committee felt that the school could benefit from a keener sense of healthy competition and that students of all ages would gain from more contact with each other across the year groups. We felt there was a lot of fun to be had in sporting and other events from students of all ages competing outside the classroom in exciting and challenging contexts; lessons in fair play and resilience could be learned along the way. A House system could also create the experience of additional leadership roles and we very much hoped staff (both academic and support) would want to join in as well, to create an atmosphere of team spirit and friendly rivalry throughout the school.
A question that cropped up very early on was how to name the Houses? We considered such options as naming them after famous modern women of science, literature and politics but eventually settled for naming them after the first six Headmistresses: Powell, Millar, Gilliland, Sprules, Harold and Gillett. Research revealed that these previous leaders of the school had shown often innovative leadership over the years, from abolishing homework (Miss Gilliland) and evacuating the school during the War (Miss Sprules). We felt too that these women’s names would help give the school a sense of our ongoing history and a connection with our past.
The six houses will be made up of all the students in the Senior School, each assigned randomly to a House (with the exception of sisters, who would be automatically assigned to the same one). In time, students will compete in school sporting and extra-curricular events for their Houses, there will be House Captains chosen from the students and they will be run by members of staff as Heads of House. There will be a system of House points, which will enable students to compete for their House, no matter what they are participating in and in whatever capacity; taking part constructively in the life of the House will be rewarded. In looking at House points we were greatly aided by the help we were given by the Junior School who already have a highly successful Team system on similar lines. And all of this will be on top of, not instead of the existing school pastoral system, which will continue to be based around the Form and Form Tutors.”
The Introduction
The Head Girl 2014-15, Dina Abedi, explained what happened next in an article that she wrote for the school magazine.
““A curse has been put on the school and it’s up to us, as the Upper 6, to get rid of it“. This was our opening storyline to ’The Games’ which were to be the new Action Week replacement.
It’s safe to say that everyone threw themselves into planning it and there was a huge buzz amongst the Upper 6 for days.
So what did ‘The Games’ involve? The whole school was split into six teams named after our esteemed Headmistresses from Hoxton and Acton: Powell, Millar, Gilliland, Harold, Sprules and Gillett. Each team had an object associated with them; the objects were all taken from the school crest and all the teams also had a motto created in Latin by Mr Doe to sum up the team qualities
As part of the storyline it was the job of the Senior Team to find the objects around London, which had gone missing because of the curse, however, they needed more money to fund their mission. This is where the U6 came in: they held events from Monday 16th to Friday 27th March [2015]. These events included a cleverly named House Party, which was intended for everyone to get to know other members of their team; mural painting in which the whole school came together to paint a school mural; a carnival; and a whole school sleepover, which in reality involved no sleeping but allowed girls to come in wearing pyjamas and watch various films down the 6th form corridor! Each event cost £1 entry, and there was also food and merchandise, such as t-shirts, available to buy.
All in all, this was a fantastic fundraising effort from the school and the total raised came to over £10,310, which was distributed equally among the five school charities. On top of this, to celebrate The Games, the staff and the Senior Team put on a surprise Pantomime during the end of term assembly. Not only was a huge amount of money raised but it was announced that the teams would become Houses from September 2015. Hopefully, once everyone settles into the new House system, the school will be even more successful in the future, both through its fundraising efforts and through creating a sense of belonging and friendly competition between girls.”
Action Week
The school has always had a strong ethos of raising funds for charity which was particularly evident under the Headship of Miss Gilliland (1903-1919). The opening page of the 1908 school magazine carries a letter from her addressed to:
MY DEAR GIRL COMRADES,
I want to record here how very greatly I value the cheerful and unselfish way in which you at once resolved, when you heard how badly our ” charities ” needed help, to give up Sports’ Prizes. I think you will have a very happy day on July 25th, and it will be all the happier for the thought that you have given some thirty children the supreme joy of living for a fortnight in the midst of God’s most beautiful works—of leaving behind them the crowded, noisy alley, where only a narrow strip of the sky can be seen, and going among the green fields and shady woods, and learning some of the glorious delights of long and happy days in the country. Your kindly and generous thought for the little ones, who have so few chances of happiness, will bring its own sweet and gracious reward.
Yours affectionately,
MARGARET A. GILLILAND.
In February 1994 the first Prefects’ Charity Week was held with the aim of raising £500 for the new children’s ward at Northwick Park Hospital. It exceeded the target and raised £650. This idea became Action Week which was a week of fundraising activities and events in February each year entirely organised and run by the Senior Team led by the Head Girl. In February 2012 it had a theme – favourite children’s books and raised £9000. The last Action Week in 2014 had it’s own twitter account with one tweet reading “Explaining Action Week to someone who doesn’t go to Habs is like trying to staple jelly to a tree.” The total raised was £11,661.38.
However, 20 years after its inception, the central venue for most of the lunchtime events, the Prevett Hall, was being used as a temporary dining room whilst the building work was taking place and so it was a good time for a change.
2019 – new house logos
Four years after their introduction the School Houses were becoming well embedded into school life with around 20,000 House Points having been given out for a whole range of reasons ranging from being in the Excellence Book, to holding a door open, to answering a question in class, through to dancing, singing, debating, titrating, solving a Murder Mystery, painting nails, selling ribbons, henna tattooing, netball, cross country, chess, tennis and dressing up like a rabbit! Sports Day had been transformed into a sea of noise, colour, face paint and some very loud chanting.
Visitors to the school can see the House Board in the foyer and are always amazed by the range of activities that take place in the House system. The question asked most often is: “What are ‘Harvest Trolleys’”? We are probably the only school that has a House event involving decorating shopping trolleys.
In order to make the House system more visible the Lower 4 were asked to come up with some designs for House logos that could be digitised and easily reproduced so now each House has, not only a colour but a new logo to use.
