House System

House Competitions 19-20

Origins and House Names

The Enniskillen Royal Grammar School House System was established in 2017 during the second year of amalgamation. There are four Houses in the school, named after four local mountains visible to the south of the Lough Shore site: Belmore, Benaughlin, Cuilcagh and Trien. Amongst the reasons for selecting the names of local mountain peaks was the concept of aiming high and conquering challenge, linked to our school motto of persevere and excel, “Perstare et Praestare”.

Each House has an associated colour, originally linked to the colours of the school and the local county of Fermanagh.  In 2018 we were excited to be able to launch our new House Shields, thanks to the work of Mrs J Stephenson and a team of Year 10 pupils. Based on the theme of the four local mountains, the design team considered the associated wildlife found within Marble Arch Geopark and designed four animal based graphics, each symbolising the  skills and qualities associated with successful competition.

In its first year, the House System established a healthy sense of competition between rival members as they competed in over thirty different house competitions and events through the year. These included sports, creative and expressive arts and a number of academic challenges. In the first year of competition, Benaughlin were crowned winners of 2017-2018, following a nail-biting finish to Sports Day in June 2018, unseating Trien from what had looked like a guaranteed victory.

House Membership

House membership includes all pupils across the school as well as all teaching and support staff.  New members of the school community are allocated to a House which they remain in for the duration of their time at school.  In keeping with the  legacy schools’ traditions, affiliation with a House is linked to family, in which all siblings and parents will be allocated to the same house. Each year, the allocation of house membership is done in order to achieve a balance of age and gender across all four houses.

House Leadership

At the beginning of each school year,  Year 14 House Captains (one girl and one boy) are elected by pupils and staff to take on the role of house leadership for each of the four houses. Their role is to promote their house within the school community as well as take the lead in the organisation of house teams and supporters. The ultimate goal is to win the highly sought after ‘House Cup’, presented during Prize Night. In addition, the winning house indulges in the ‘House Celebration Banquet’ held at the beginning of the following year.

Similarly, each house team also has three Staff House Leaders whose role is to support the House Captains in their successful leadership throughout the year.

House Points

House points are acquired in two ways:

• For participation
• For final position within inter-house competition

For each house event, one house point will be awarded for each participant or entry made.

For each house event, final position within inter-house competitions will be recognised though the allocations of points as outlined below.  Each event will be graded based on the scale of the event and the likely number of participants. (BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD & PLATINUM).

From the outset of each competition/event, the category of competition should be made clear to all participants.  At the end of each event, final positional points will be consistently allocated according to the House Points Matrix

The House Point Totalometer is regularly updated after each event and posted on the School Website and App, as well as displayed within school, to keep all members of the community informed of ongoing inter-house position.

House Competitions and Events for 2019-20

The following calendar of events has been put together for this coming year and we look forward to seeing as many members of the school community as possible getting involved in the full range of activities on offer. All House events are worth House Points for both participation and position.

House Competitions 19-20