Lady Lumley's School House System

Every student who attends Lady Lumley’s School is an integral member of a house.

Each house is made up of students from Year 7 all the way through to Upper Sixth and staff members. The house system is a tradition of Lady Lumley’s School and is currently being re-launched to reinvigorate the sense of House pride and belonging.

House Assemblies took place in January to introduce the new developments to the students and staff. In the Summer term, a proposed ‘House Bonding’ event will take place to help students network with peers through exercises to create house plays, displays and consolidate their House Identity. The new system is designed to be inclusive by promoting and recognising the strengths of all students across a wider range of activity areas.

Current competitions are in place to create a ‘House Logo’ using the history of the houses’ and building on the pre-existing house colours.

There are four Houses:

• Acland
• Feversham
• Highfield
• Hainsworth

What are the aims?

To give students a supportive and secure environment in which they have a sense of pride and identity. The system will foster a close rapport between students and staff while providing positive competition and participation and encouraging teamwork. The House system will also help new students and staff to settle into the community of Lady Lumley’s School, while allowing students the opportunities to take on responsibilities of organising events and their house.

History of the Houses

The first two houses at Lady Lumley’s were founded in 1930, and given the colours gold and green after the school colours. They were named Feversham and Acland. 

Acland was named after The Rt Hon A H Acland who was the Minister for Education in the 1890s. He officially opened the school on our previous site at what is now Pickering Junior School in 1905. 

Feversham was named after the Lords and Earls of Feversham, whose home is Duncombe Park House in Helmsley, and who have contributed greatly to the history of the school.  

Highfield house was the third to be created, in 1954, after the school expanded and moved to the current site in 1952. The house was given the colour red. Mr Highfield was the school’s first headteacher as Lady Lumley’s became a co-ed School in 1905. He was Headteacher for 25 years. 

Finally, in 1973, another increase in numbers meant Hainsworth house was created, and associated with blue. Hainsworth is named for Mrs Dorothy Hainsworth, who had been a Governor for 50 years, and Chairwoman of the Governors for a further 10 years.

House Presidents

As the Upper Sixth students prepare to finish school for exam leave, elections take place for the Senior student team consisting of the Head Boy and Girl, their deputies and the House Presidents. Each House will have a male and female House president who are responsible for the leadership and organization of their house throughout the year, alongside the Head of House.

House Captains

To help the Presidents in getting their House to participate and achieve their goals, there are two strands of captains; Sports Captains and General House Captains. There are male and female Sports Captains in each year from Y7-Y12, and one General Captain for each year from Y7-Y12.

House Events

The following house events will take place throughout the year;

• Sports events: football, netball, basketball, hockey, cricket, rounders, tennis, athletics (Sports day), cross country, swimming, benchball and multi-skills.
• Bake Off
• Drama
• Masterchef
• Performing arts- Lady Lumley’s Got Talent
• Debating
• University Challenge
• Maths Challenge
• Outdoor and adventurous activities
• House Showcase evening
• Music
• Design and technology activities
• Entrepreneur activities

All events allow students chance to earn points for their House for participating and also for winning or good performances. House points are added together over the year and the House with the most points at the end of the academic year wins the overall House Cup. Students can also earn House points in lessons and around the school throughout the day. Students forge an allegiance to their house and a sense of enjoyment and friendly competition is apparent in all house events.

Points can be earned by;

• Upholding the core values of the school and house system
• Working cooperatively with peers
• Helping to peer coach
• Showing acts of kindness
• Makes a positive contribution to the school or its wider community

A house points display is located outside of the dining room so students can see where their house stands in relation to other houses in terms of points.

Additional to this display are two House boards displaying the core values, students success stories, upcoming events, Heads of House, House presidents, House captains and photos from events.