Why are we Changing the Names of our Houses?
On 2nd June 2021 we were delighted to interview Luke Webb, House Co-ordinator at Dulwich International High School Suzhou. For the last few months, Luke has been heavily involved in the lengthy process of changing the names of the four houses at our school. Before we look at the reasons for changing house names, it is worth considering the role of the house system at our school.
Luke Webb
House Co-ordinator
On 2nd June 2021 we were delighted to interview Luke Webb, House Co-ordinator at Dulwich International High School Suzhou. For the last few months, Luke has been heavily involved in the lengthy process of changing the names of the four houses at our school. Before we look at the reasons for changing house names, it is worth considering the role of the house system at our school.
The house system provides opportunities for students to grow and learn, in terms of personality, morality, creativity, knowledge and skills. The system promotes the values of fair play, teamwork, citizenship, mutual responsibility, as well as self-discipline, initiative, perseverance, and resilience. It provides opportunities to take on responsibilities, to grow and develop leadership skills and brings everyone in the school together. The House system also allow houses to compete in a supportive environment. Competitions are an important part of popular culture with Singing, Cooking, Sewing, Painting and Quiz shows accounting for the vast majority of the light entertainment we watch on Television. The House system helps our students to learn how to be good, sportsman like competitors that enjoy the positive aspects of healthy competition. Luke was also keen to emphasise how the house system lets our students feel they are part of something, and to experience a sense of community.
The origins of the house system date back to the foundation of our parent School Dulwich College in London. In recent years house systems were brought to public attention in the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. Our current Houses are named after three men who were contemporaries of Edward Alleyn (the founder of Dulwich College) and one male Confucian scholar. Edmund Spenser (our blue house), who is best known for writing The Faerie Queene poem, was a neighbour of Sir Walter Raleigh and it is implied that it was Raleigh (our red House) who persuaded Spenser to present this poem to Queen Elizabeth. Raleigh was a writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was cousin to Sir Richard Grenville (our green House). Grenville was also a soldier and an explorer. These three men are all interconnected either by land or by blood and it’s that family element that we echoed in our old house system. Our final House (purple) is Fan House. Fan Zhongyan was widely respected as a great Confucian scholar.
Why Change the House Names?
Luke explained that the decision to change the house names was a democratic one. There was clearly an appetite to change the names of the houses to reflect changes within society and to be more modern, forward looking, and representative (not least, by including women amongst the house names).
Luke elaborated on the reason for the change, explaining that:
“Nowadays, we're more aware of our history. It's quite easy these days to find out history online. You don’t even have to go to the library to find information, but you do have to be careful with where you get your information online. But there's so many resources now to find out information about people.”
When this was put to the vote more than 2 in 1 voted in favour of the change. However, this was merely the start of the long process of choosing the new house names. Luke also added that it’s the culture that exists within each house that remains the most important part of our house system and that this will continue after the name change.
How was this process carried out?
Luke explained that the student leadership team were consulted throughout the process and that students themselves were ultimately responsible for not only choosing the new names but assigning the new names a house colour. Students that nominated a public figure eventually had to complete a short presentation about their choice and explain why their specific figure should be chosen to represent a House at Dulwich International High School Suzhou. This involved public speaking to a whole school assembly! Public speaking to over 1,000 people can be nerve wracking even for experienced teachers, so its show just how passionate our students were about their own choices that they were prepared to deliver their presentations in front of such a large audience.
When will the changes be officially announced?
At by the end of this carefully managed process list of potential names for our houses had been condensed down to a short list of 12 possibilities.
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- Florence Nightingale
- Helen Keller
- Li Qing Zhao 李清照
- Marie Curie
- Soong Ching-ling 宋庆龄
- Alan Turing
- Bruce Lee 李小龍
- Charles Darwin
- Martin Luther King
- Nelson Mandela
- Zheng He 郑和
The final choice of new house names has now been decided will be officially released to the world on the last day of term in the final whole school assembly on the 18th of June. It’s Luke’s hope that this new chapter in the history of our school’s house system will help our students to embrace change in positive manner and lead to exciting opportunities for new ideas to develop.
