School Houses
School Houses I think are a British thing. It's a way to divide up the students into teams for sports and other competitive activities.
At Coombe Hill Juniors all the houses were named after people who had been important in and around Coombe; Neville (green), Belet (blue), Spencer (yellow) and Somerset (red). I was in Somerset. Spencer always won (or at least it seemed that way) and Belet always lost (because I wasn't in it, unlike both of brothers).
At Coombe house points were awarded not just for various competitions but also for good academic work. They gave you these little strips of card in the colour of your house stamped with the school's address. You'd put these in the tin for your class and each week the points would be counted up for each class and added together to see who'd won the trophy that week. The points for all the weeks were added up each term, and all three terms were added together at the end of the year. Some bright spark worked out that if you horded your house points and then put them all in at once you can have a decisive effect on the result for that week, so everyone went around with a variable number of house points stored away in their pencilcase.
Apart from one peice of maths work for which I was awarded an unprecedented 7 House Points (my mathematical ability peaked at age eight), my biggest contribution was when I won the egg and spoon race on Sport's Day by default. The other two runners both picked up their eggs with their hands, disqualifying them. I resolutely picked it up with my spoon and carried out until the other two had finished.
House Points were counted by two sixth years who were chosen for their mathematical ability. I was one and Rachel Pistol was the other. We both happened to be in Somerset... but with Rachel's christian morals we were never tempted to cheat (honest).
At Tiffins all the houses were named after famous explorers; Raleigh, Drake, Livingstone, Gordon, Kingsley and Scott. After the Second World War Kingsley became Kingsley Montgomery and Gordon became Churchill Gordon. I was in Scott, which the Head of Sixth Form once pointed out was the only house to be named after an explorer who not only failed but died in the attempt. Scott House's performace was comparable to its namesake's. In the first six years of my time at the school we came sixth out of six five times and fifth once. In my final year, we redeemed ourselves somewhat and managed a nice second place.
We played bridge like mad in one of the form rooms when I was in the Sixth Form, and I captained Scott's House Bridge Team in the Upper Sixth. I had been on the team in two previous years, and once on the General Knowledge team. I was never all that interested in House activities and the most prised skill of any member of Scott House was the ability to dodge compulsory service. I lost this skill after evading House Singing two years in a row and somehow found my weedy self in the Upper School House Rugby competition, which was one of the more physically painful few hours of my life. Still, that which does not kill me can only make me stronger- and look good on my CV.