After months of deliberation and planning we are delighted to be able to announce changes to our House System from September. When we return from the summer break we will begin to celebrate forty years of Catholic Education and formation here at St Gregory’s. There is no better time to make these wonderful and outward looking changes.

At a school senate meeting earlier in the year, students expressed concern that the current house saints were not appreciated or easy to identify with. Students knew the name of their house, the symbol and nickname associated with their saint, but not much more. House saints should be inspirational role models, who encapsulate the qualities that our young people aspire to. They should be people who our own students can connect with, pray to, identify with and learn from.

So began the process of revamping the way our houses work. Instead of each tutor group being named after a house saint, students wanted to have a mixture of houses in each tutor group. Therefore, it was decided to revert to a more traditional model and rename the tutor groups after the letters of our patron – St Gregory, and have four houses that run throughout the school. Over time, students from the leadership team, house reps, tutor reps, school senate and more gathered to offer their input and explore the options. There were some very thoughtful and articulate insights shared, with students so passionate about the type of people that would make for great new house saints.

It became evident that students were determined that the new houses reflected the whole spectrum of our school community. That the passion for certain areas of life that young being care so much about such as the environment, equality, justice and poverty, were displayed in the new House Saints. Although it was hard to narrow them down to the final four, we managed it and I’m sure you’ll agree that they truly do capture everything our young people hold dear. We will have: Stein House, Romero House, Francis House and Bakhita House. In these new house saints it is hoped the entire school community, in this anniversary year, can resonate with the ideals and Gospel values that they radiate.

In the new house overviews below, our students give some of their reasons for the choice of houses. Many of those same pupils will be working on new graphics over the last weeks of term in anticipation of the new start in September.

Mr M Robinson
Lay Chaplain