Today we want to share a bit about one of the ways we cultivate community up at our high school: the house system! If you’ve heard of this and don’t really know what it is, or have a future SLOCA high school student and want a sneak peek at what they have to look forward to, read on. Here's some info from our high school on how the academic house arrangement works:
In January of 2016, we moved into our new high school campus: four beautiful renovated houses located directly across the street from SLOCA’s main campus (and Cal Poly’s) on Grand Avenue. The one-room school houses share a large, lush backyard where students can commune, eat, play ping pong or horseshoes, and garden. Students also have access to a lounge for reading, group work, board games, and coffee and tea.
Our campus is designed to foster creativity, focus, friendship, and serenity, and our new campus houses are more than just classrooms: they are hubs of social activity! Just like at Oxford, Cambridge, and yes, Hogwarts, at SLOCA High School each student is initiated into a “house” with its own themes, culture, traditions, rituals, and governing bodies. Each house offers students new opportunities to connect, create, and lead in the high school community while forging community with different students across age groups.
To encourage community between grade levels, students are welcomed into one of four academic houses: Athens House, Valhalla House, Vitruvian House, and Curie House. The names of the houses correspond to the four years of our history cycle. Each house sends representatives to participate in our Student Council and is presided over by a House Leader from SLOCA High School’s faculty. Heads of Houses are as follows:
Athens House – Mr. Paul McCullough
Valhalla House – Ms. Sarah Shotwell
Vitruvian House – Mrs. Paige Bartel
Curie House – Mrs. Sonja Bair
Last week, during spirit week, houses competed for Spirit Points, and the winning house – Valhalla! – was awarded a trophy at the Homecoming Dance on Friday!
Here are group photos of each house snapped during Spirit Week:
Athens House:
Valhalla House:
Vitruvian House:
Curie House:
What a great way to foster friendships and fun! We love seeing what’s happening up on our high school campus and hope our readers do too.
