Everything you need to launch a House Points System in your school.
That feeling of belonging provides safety. Not in the physical sense necessarily, but in the psychological. When we feel that we belong we feel safe to take risks, we feel safe to put ourselves out there.
That has a great deal of value in and out of the classroom. We need students to feel comfortable taking academic risks so they can learn at a high level.
This also works amazingly well for motivation. The whole concept of being on a team develops a shared responsibility aspect for your school.
Your students make it their school. It’s we, not me.
But everyone can’t be an athlete, and there are only so many clubs available. So how do you make every student in your school feel like they are a part of the team?
You create small communities in your school that will include everyone. Those communities are called “Houses”.
A House Points system is a behavior strategy where students are divided into teams called Houses. The students within each House work together to earn points for positive behavior, support each other, and compete against other Houses or earn rewards.
Usually, each student is assigned to a House during the House induction ceremony, and they stay with that House until they leave the school.
In a recent LiveSchool webinar, Sabrina Hughes-Tate, a Gifted and Talented Teacher in Nashville, pointed out that House systems do more than promote positive behavior and deter negative behavior.
They also promote community, self-esteem, self-identity, teamwork, and pride.
Another advantage of House Points is that you can customize your behavior rubric to fit your student’s needs, wants, and personalities.
For a great example, you can look no further than how “Antioch Middle School built its community with 1.5 million House Points”.
House Points can improve behavior, but they also have some very real cultural benefits beyond student discipline:
A House System can help students feel a sense of belonging and community within a larger school.
This can be especially important for students who are new to a school or who may feel isolated. Developing school spirit through House Points can be a big difference-maker for your students.
Speaking of belonging, don’t forget that your teachers are a part of each House! This provides an opportunity for students to have a mentor who is not necessarily their classroom teacher and conversely, a chance for teachers to build relationships outside of their class rosters. Win-win!
House Points can encourage students to collaborate and work together towards common goals. This can help students develop teamwork skills and learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.
Your Houses also tend to promote alignment between school-wide priorities and individual teacher classroom management practices.
For a great example of this, you should check out how Bowmar Elementary transformed its classroom management with 486K House Points.
House Points provides a healthy competitive outlet for students. This can help students stay motivated and strive to achieve their best. When used correctly, competition can become a vital classroom management tool. Don’t forget the scoreboard!
House Points can provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. This can happen through taking on leadership roles within their House or by participating in House activities like Del Valle Elementary’s “Level Up” event.
House Point systems can foster a sense of ownership among students. This can help students feel more connected to their school and motivated to succeed.
A House System can also help to improve communication between teachers and students. As David Olinger said on our podcast, Houses provide a framework for organizing school activities and could become a catalyst for school culture change.
Starting your own House Points program has never been easier. We have distilled everything you need to do down into six easy steps to launch your own House system that even a muggle could follow. 🧙♂️
There are several factors to consider when setting up Houses:
How large will each House be? This is important because you want to hit a sweet spot with House size where every student feels connected and where you have enough Houses to compete in House competitions.
Last, but certainly not least, is determining the names of each House. Schools take many different routes.
Some choose to focus on school history, others make them based on character traits, you can incorporate different languages, or even allow the students in each House to create their name!
The options are endless so we created a database of all of the House Names in the LiveSchool Community to help get you started.
The two most common ways to sort students into Houses are by grade level or across grade levels. So, do you want older and younger students together in one House?
Typically, having students in the same grade-level House is easier for scheduling. However, schools with Houses across grade levels have found major benefits in having older and younger students together which encourages mentoring relationships.
Feel free to create your sorting hat if you want to lean into the wizardry.
When Houses are used by teachers, they can keep track of PBIS points in the classroom using paper, the board, or an Excel spreadsheet. The tool you choose should be simple and shouldn’t demand too much time from teachers.
You might want to consider LiveSchool’s House Points feature so you have a digital solution for your House System organization. We even have a handy guide to launching House Points to guide your work.
Building your behavior rubric can be a collaborative effort between students, staff, and administrators.
LiveSchool allows you to add the behaviors to the dashboard, which serves as a consistent reminder to students and teachers throughout the day.
You’ll probably consult with teachers throughout steps 1-3, but now it’s time to roll out House Points to everyone.
Train them on how to use the behavior management tool, and emphasize their role in making the House System a success.
The majority of your House Points will be distributed by your teaching staff. The more excited they are about the program the more that excitement will be transferred to your students!
LiveSchool can help with your training as well!
Now it’s time to bring the noise! These are just a few of our favorite ways to announce your Houses:
Popping balloons would work great with younger students! Place a small piece of paper with the house name on it inside the balloon. Blow the balloon up. Write the child’s name on the balloon with a marker. Have students sit on their balloons to pop them and reveal their house.
For this idea, Houses would need to have house wristbands already. As a surprise, staff members can place the House bracelets in students’ lockers after school hours.
Then, when students come to campus the next day, staff members can count down over the intercom for students to open their lockers and find out their house.
Typically used in schools that already have a House System established, The Draft could be a formal annual event with round tables, decor, and semi-formal attire. Parents and guardians can attend the Draft party sitting with their students.
So no, you don’t need to rent out the Hogwarts Express to launch your Houses. But for an audio option, you might want to listen to our podcast on launching your own House System.
Creating this community is more than just placing students in a House. Like a team, you need to provide time for students to meet, connect, and develop leaders within the Houses.
That’s where House Meetings come in.
A House Meeting is a regularly scheduled time for the House to come together and build relationships. There is typically an agenda but the main goal is to allow students to connect.
The staff members in each House can be in the meeting, as well, but their role should take a back seat to the students. Creating House Leaders is a great way to help provide structure for the students.
For more on including your students in the planning process, check out our podcast with Eric Keiper on pushing your school to greatness through Houses. Your students can also be called upon to teach your school-wide expectations.
House Events can be a great opportunity for students to build community with their Housemates and continue cultivating House engagement and pride.
When it comes to House Celebrations, we have a few ideas that are sure to be a hit with your school community:
Two words that most people love: dance and party! So bring them together and get funky with your students! You can choose to have a decade theme or just play the hits to ensure your students have a blast!
Learn more about running a dance party celebration here!
Because who doesn’t love to wear pajamas to school? The House that wins this reward will love showing off their PJs with their Housemates!
It doesn’t have to be Homecoming Week to have a dress-up or dress-down day! You can find additional details about utilizing this reward here!
The smell of popcorn in a school will make everyone wish they won this reward! Consider having students all get together in the gym or auditorium for the movie or have them split up into teacher’s rooms for a special screening.
An exciting way to continue the momentum of spirit, community, and culture in your school’s Houses is to give opportunities for students to earn House Points through House challenges.
Yep, we have a few great community-submitted ideas for challenges as well:
Create a theme for each day of the week and award points to the Houses that have the most participation for each theme. Some examples we’ve seen in the LiveSchool Community include House Pride Day where you wear your House colors, wacky sock day and college day.
With Battle of the Books, a group of students from each House would be assigned books to read and attend House competitions. At the event, Houses would test their knowledge of the books they had read.
Esports has become extremely popular over the last few years. People can now watch teams compete in online video games just like they watch teams play football.
Houses can have Esports teams compete in a school tournament where they duel the other houses in common games like League of Legends and Minecraft.
Most schools in the LiveSchool Community choose to do a House Cup which lasts the entire school year.
Then they also include shorter competitions which typically last a month or quarter to keep the student engagement rolling all year round. Let the good times roll!
For more on House Point Competitions check out “How Maranatha Christian Schools develops camaraderie and community using House Points”.
The ultimate purpose of having Houses is to create a school culture that revolves around positive student behavior.
To assist in this behavior management objective, you may want to combine Houses with other proven strategies like PBIS, classroom management, student rewards, school reward stores, and a strong behavior data dashboard.
That feeling of belonging provides safety. Not in the physical sense necessarily, but in the psychological. When we feel that we belong we feel safe to take risks, we feel safe to put ourselves out there.
That has a great deal of value in and out of the classroom. We need students to feel comfortable taking academic risks so they can learn at a high level.
This also works amazingly well for motivation. The whole concept of being on a team develops a shared responsibility aspect for your school.
Your students make it their school. It’s we, not me.
But everyone can’t be an athlete, and there are only so many clubs available. So how do you make every student in your school feel like they are a part of the team?
You create small communities in your school that will include everyone. Those communities are called “Houses”.
A House Points system is a behavior strategy where students are divided into teams called Houses. The students within each House work together to earn points for positive behavior, support each other, and compete against other Houses or earn rewards.
Usually, each student is assigned to a House during the House induction ceremony, and they stay with that House until they leave the school.
In a recent LiveSchool webinar, Sabrina Hughes-Tate, a Gifted and Talented Teacher in Nashville, pointed out that House systems do more than promote positive behavior and deter negative behavior.
They also promote community, self-esteem, self-identity, teamwork, and pride.
Another advantage of House Points is that you can customize your behavior rubric to fit your student’s needs, wants, and personalities.
For a great example, you can look no further than how “Antioch Middle School built its community with 1.5 million House Points”.
House Points can improve behavior, but they also have some very real cultural benefits beyond student discipline:
A House System can help students feel a sense of belonging and community within a larger school.
This can be especially important for students who are new to a school or who may feel isolated. Developing school spirit through House Points can be a big difference-maker for your students.
Speaking of belonging, don’t forget that your teachers are a part of each House! This provides an opportunity for students to have a mentor who is not necessarily their classroom teacher and conversely, a chance for teachers to build relationships outside of their class rosters. Win-win!
House Points can encourage students to collaborate and work together towards common goals. This can help students develop teamwork skills and learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.
Your Houses also tend to promote alignment between school-wide priorities and individual teacher classroom management practices.
For a great example of this, you should check out how Bowmar Elementary transformed its classroom management with 486K House Points.
House Points provides a healthy competitive outlet for students. This can help students stay motivated and strive to achieve their best. When used correctly, competition can become a vital classroom management tool. Don’t forget the scoreboard!
House Points can provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. This can happen through taking on leadership roles within their House or by participating in House activities like Del Valle Elementary’s “Level Up” event.
House Point systems can foster a sense of ownership among students. This can help students feel more connected to their school and motivated to succeed.
A House System can also help to improve communication between teachers and students. As David Olinger said on our podcast, Houses provide a framework for organizing school activities and could become a catalyst for school culture change.
Starting your own House Points program has never been easier. We have distilled everything you need to do down into six easy steps to launch your own House system that even a muggle could follow. 🧙♂️
There are several factors to consider when setting up Houses:
How large will each House be? This is important because you want to hit a sweet spot with House size where every student feels connected and where you have enough Houses to compete in House competitions.
Last, but certainly not least, is determining the names of each House. Schools take many different routes.
Some choose to focus on school history, others make them based on character traits, you can incorporate different languages, or even allow the students in each House to create their name!
The options are endless so we created a database of all of the House Names in the LiveSchool Community to help get you started.
The two most common ways to sort students into Houses are by grade level or across grade levels. So, do you want older and younger students together in one House?
Typically, having students in the same grade-level House is easier for scheduling. However, schools with Houses across grade levels have found major benefits in having older and younger students together which encourages mentoring relationships.
Feel free to create your sorting hat if you want to lean into the wizardry.
When Houses are used by teachers, they can keep track of PBIS points in the classroom using paper, the board, or an Excel spreadsheet. The tool you choose should be simple and shouldn’t demand too much time from teachers.
You might want to consider LiveSchool’s House Points feature so you have a digital solution for your House System organization. We even have a handy guide to launching House Points to guide your work.
Building your behavior rubric can be a collaborative effort between students, staff, and administrators.
LiveSchool allows you to add the behaviors to the dashboard, which serves as a consistent reminder to students and teachers throughout the day.
You’ll probably consult with teachers throughout steps 1-3, but now it’s time to roll out House Points to everyone.
Train them on how to use the behavior management tool, and emphasize their role in making the House System a success.
The majority of your House Points will be distributed by your teaching staff. The more excited they are about the program the more that excitement will be transferred to your students!
LiveSchool can help with your training as well!
Now it’s time to bring the noise! These are just a few of our favorite ways to announce your Houses:
Popping balloons would work great with younger students! Place a small piece of paper with the house name on it inside the balloon. Blow the balloon up. Write the child’s name on the balloon with a marker. Have students sit on their balloons to pop them and reveal their house.
For this idea, Houses would need to have house wristbands already. As a surprise, staff members can place the House bracelets in students’ lockers after school hours.
Then, when students come to campus the next day, staff members can count down over the intercom for students to open their lockers and find out their house.
Typically used in schools that already have a House System established, The Draft could be a formal annual event with round tables, decor, and semi-formal attire. Parents and guardians can attend the Draft party sitting with their students.
So no, you don’t need to rent out the Hogwarts Express to launch your Houses. But for an audio option, you might want to listen to our podcast on launching your own House System.
Creating this community is more than just placing students in a House. Like a team, you need to provide time for students to meet, connect, and develop leaders within the Houses.
That’s where House Meetings come in.
A House Meeting is a regularly scheduled time for the House to come together and build relationships. There is typically an agenda but the main goal is to allow students to connect.
The staff members in each House can be in the meeting, as well, but their role should take a back seat to the students. Creating House Leaders is a great way to help provide structure for the students.
For more on including your students in the planning process, check out our podcast with Eric Keiper on pushing your school to greatness through Houses. Your students can also be called upon to teach your school-wide expectations.
House Events can be a great opportunity for students to build community with their Housemates and continue cultivating House engagement and pride.
When it comes to House Celebrations, we have a few ideas that are sure to be a hit with your school community:
Two words that most people love: dance and party! So bring them together and get funky with your students! You can choose to have a decade theme or just play the hits to ensure your students have a blast!
Learn more about running a dance party celebration here!
Because who doesn’t love to wear pajamas to school? The House that wins this reward will love showing off their PJs with their Housemates!
It doesn’t have to be Homecoming Week to have a dress-up or dress-down day! You can find additional details about utilizing this reward here!
The smell of popcorn in a school will make everyone wish they won this reward! Consider having students all get together in the gym or auditorium for the movie or have them split up into teacher’s rooms for a special screening.
An exciting way to continue the momentum of spirit, community, and culture in your school’s Houses is to give opportunities for students to earn House Points through House challenges.
Yep, we have a few great community-submitted ideas for challenges as well:
Create a theme for each day of the week and award points to the Houses that have the most participation for each theme. Some examples we’ve seen in the LiveSchool Community include House Pride Day where you wear your House colors, wacky sock day and college day.
With Battle of the Books, a group of students from each House would be assigned books to read and attend House competitions. At the event, Houses would test their knowledge of the books they had read.
Esports has become extremely popular over the last few years. People can now watch teams compete in online video games just like they watch teams play football.
Houses can have Esports teams compete in a school tournament where they duel the other houses in common games like League of Legends and Minecraft.
Most schools in the LiveSchool Community choose to do a House Cup which lasts the entire school year.
Then they also include shorter competitions which typically last a month or quarter to keep the student engagement rolling all year round. Let the good times roll!
For more on House Point Competitions check out “How Maranatha Christian Schools develops camaraderie and community using House Points”.
The ultimate purpose of having Houses is to create a school culture that revolves around positive student behavior.
To assist in this behavior management objective, you may want to combine Houses with other proven strategies like PBIS, classroom management, student rewards, school reward stores, and a strong behavior data dashboard.
That feeling of belonging provides safety. Not in the physical sense necessarily, but in the psychological. When we feel that we belong we feel safe to take risks, we feel safe to put ourselves out there.
That has a great deal of value in and out of the classroom. We need students to feel comfortable taking academic risks so they can learn at a high level.
This also works amazingly well for motivation. The whole concept of being on a team develops a shared responsibility aspect for your school.
Your students make it their school. It’s we, not me.
But everyone can’t be an athlete, and there are only so many clubs available. So how do you make every student in your school feel like they are a part of the team?
You create small communities in your school that will include everyone. Those communities are called “Houses”.
A House Points system is a behavior strategy where students are divided into teams called Houses. The students within each House work together to earn points for positive behavior, support each other, and compete against other Houses or earn rewards.
Usually, each student is assigned to a House during the House induction ceremony, and they stay with that House until they leave the school.
In a recent LiveSchool webinar, Sabrina Hughes-Tate, a Gifted and Talented Teacher in Nashville, pointed out that House systems do more than promote positive behavior and deter negative behavior.
They also promote community, self-esteem, self-identity, teamwork, and pride.
Another advantage of House Points is that you can customize your behavior rubric to fit your student’s needs, wants, and personalities.
For a great example, you can look no further than how “Antioch Middle School built its community with 1.5 million House Points”.
House Points can improve behavior, but they also have some very real cultural benefits beyond student discipline:
A House System can help students feel a sense of belonging and community within a larger school.
This can be especially important for students who are new to a school or who may feel isolated. Developing school spirit through House Points can be a big difference-maker for your students.
Speaking of belonging, don’t forget that your teachers are a part of each House! This provides an opportunity for students to have a mentor who is not necessarily their classroom teacher and conversely, a chance for teachers to build relationships outside of their class rosters. Win-win!
House Points can encourage students to collaborate and work together towards common goals. This can help students develop teamwork skills and learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.
Your Houses also tend to promote alignment between school-wide priorities and individual teacher classroom management practices.
For a great example of this, you should check out how Bowmar Elementary transformed its classroom management with 486K House Points.
House Points provides a healthy competitive outlet for students. This can help students stay motivated and strive to achieve their best. When used correctly, competition can become a vital classroom management tool. Don’t forget the scoreboard!
House Points can provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. This can happen through taking on leadership roles within their House or by participating in House activities like Del Valle Elementary’s “Level Up” event.
House Point systems can foster a sense of ownership among students. This can help students feel more connected to their school and motivated to succeed.
A House System can also help to improve communication between teachers and students. As David Olinger said on our podcast, Houses provide a framework for organizing school activities and could become a catalyst for school culture change.
Starting your own House Points program has never been easier. We have distilled everything you need to do down into six easy steps to launch your own House system that even a muggle could follow. 🧙♂️
There are several factors to consider when setting up Houses:
How large will each House be? This is important because you want to hit a sweet spot with House size where every student feels connected and where you have enough Houses to compete in House competitions.
Last, but certainly not least, is determining the names of each House. Schools take many different routes.
Some choose to focus on school history, others make them based on character traits, you can incorporate different languages, or even allow the students in each House to create their name!
The options are endless so we created a database of all of the House Names in the LiveSchool Community to help get you started.
The two most common ways to sort students into Houses are by grade level or across grade levels. So, do you want older and younger students together in one House?
Typically, having students in the same grade-level House is easier for scheduling. However, schools with Houses across grade levels have found major benefits in having older and younger students together which encourages mentoring relationships.
Feel free to create your sorting hat if you want to lean into the wizardry.
When Houses are used by teachers, they can keep track of PBIS points in the classroom using paper, the board, or an Excel spreadsheet. The tool you choose should be simple and shouldn’t demand too much time from teachers.
You might want to consider LiveSchool’s House Points feature so you have a digital solution for your House System organization. We even have a handy guide to launching House Points to guide your work.
Building your behavior rubric can be a collaborative effort between students, staff, and administrators.
LiveSchool allows you to add the behaviors to the dashboard, which serves as a consistent reminder to students and teachers throughout the day.
You’ll probably consult with teachers throughout steps 1-3, but now it’s time to roll out House Points to everyone.
Train them on how to use the behavior management tool, and emphasize their role in making the House System a success.
The majority of your House Points will be distributed by your teaching staff. The more excited they are about the program the more that excitement will be transferred to your students!
LiveSchool can help with your training as well!
Now it’s time to bring the noise! These are just a few of our favorite ways to announce your Houses:
Popping balloons would work great with younger students! Place a small piece of paper with the house name on it inside the balloon. Blow the balloon up. Write the child’s name on the balloon with a marker. Have students sit on their balloons to pop them and reveal their house.
For this idea, Houses would need to have house wristbands already. As a surprise, staff members can place the House bracelets in students’ lockers after school hours.
Then, when students come to campus the next day, staff members can count down over the intercom for students to open their lockers and find out their house.
Typically used in schools that already have a House System established, The Draft could be a formal annual event with round tables, decor, and semi-formal attire. Parents and guardians can attend the Draft party sitting with their students.
So no, you don’t need to rent out the Hogwarts Express to launch your Houses. But for an audio option, you might want to listen to our podcast on launching your own House System.
Creating this community is more than just placing students in a House. Like a team, you need to provide time for students to meet, connect, and develop leaders within the Houses.
That’s where House Meetings come in.
A House Meeting is a regularly scheduled time for the House to come together and build relationships. There is typically an agenda but the main goal is to allow students to connect.
The staff members in each House can be in the meeting, as well, but their role should take a back seat to the students. Creating House Leaders is a great way to help provide structure for the students.
For more on including your students in the planning process, check out our podcast with Eric Keiper on pushing your school to greatness through Houses. Your students can also be called upon to teach your school-wide expectations.
House Events can be a great opportunity for students to build community with their Housemates and continue cultivating House engagement and pride.
When it comes to House Celebrations, we have a few ideas that are sure to be a hit with your school community:
Two words that most people love: dance and party! So bring them together and get funky with your students! You can choose to have a decade theme or just play the hits to ensure your students have a blast!
Learn more about running a dance party celebration here!
Because who doesn’t love to wear pajamas to school? The House that wins this reward will love showing off their PJs with their Housemates!
It doesn’t have to be Homecoming Week to have a dress-up or dress-down day! You can find additional details about utilizing this reward here!
The smell of popcorn in a school will make everyone wish they won this reward! Consider having students all get together in the gym or auditorium for the movie or have them split up into teacher’s rooms for a special screening.
An exciting way to continue the momentum of spirit, community, and culture in your school’s Houses is to give opportunities for students to earn House Points through House challenges.
Yep, we have a few great community-submitted ideas for challenges as well:
Create a theme for each day of the week and award points to the Houses that have the most participation for each theme. Some examples we’ve seen in the LiveSchool Community include House Pride Day where you wear your House colors, wacky sock day and college day.
With Battle of the Books, a group of students from each House would be assigned books to read and attend House competitions. At the event, Houses would test their knowledge of the books they had read.
Esports has become extremely popular over the last few years. People can now watch teams compete in online video games just like they watch teams play football.
Houses can have Esports teams compete in a school tournament where they duel the other houses in common games like League of Legends and Minecraft.
Most schools in the LiveSchool Community choose to do a House Cup which lasts the entire school year.
Then they also include shorter competitions which typically last a month or quarter to keep the student engagement rolling all year round. Let the good times roll!
For more on House Point Competitions check out “How Maranatha Christian Schools develops camaraderie and community using House Points”.
The ultimate purpose of having Houses is to create a school culture that revolves around positive student behavior.
To assist in this behavior management objective, you may want to combine Houses with other proven strategies like PBIS, classroom management, student rewards, school reward stores, and a strong behavior data dashboard.
You know what they teamwork makes the dream work. These articles have been written by the wonderful members of our team.
That feeling of belonging provides safety. Not in the physical sense necessarily, but in the psychological. When we feel that we belong we feel safe to take risks, we feel safe to put ourselves out there.
That has a great deal of value in and out of the classroom. We need students to feel comfortable taking academic risks so they can learn at a high level.
This also works amazingly well for motivation. The whole concept of being on a team develops a shared responsibility aspect for your school.
Your students make it their school. It’s we, not me.
But everyone can’t be an athlete, and there are only so many clubs available. So how do you make every student in your school feel like they are a part of the team?
You create small communities in your school that will include everyone. Those communities are called “Houses”.
A House Points system is a behavior strategy where students are divided into teams called Houses. The students within each House work together to earn points for positive behavior, support each other, and compete against other Houses or earn rewards.
Usually, each student is assigned to a House during the House induction ceremony, and they stay with that House until they leave the school.
In a recent LiveSchool webinar, Sabrina Hughes-Tate, a Gifted and Talented Teacher in Nashville, pointed out that House systems do more than promote positive behavior and deter negative behavior.
They also promote community, self-esteem, self-identity, teamwork, and pride.
Another advantage of House Points is that you can customize your behavior rubric to fit your student’s needs, wants, and personalities.
For a great example, you can look no further than how “Antioch Middle School built its community with 1.5 million House Points”.
House Points can improve behavior, but they also have some very real cultural benefits beyond student discipline:
A House System can help students feel a sense of belonging and community within a larger school.
This can be especially important for students who are new to a school or who may feel isolated. Developing school spirit through House Points can be a big difference-maker for your students.
Speaking of belonging, don’t forget that your teachers are a part of each House! This provides an opportunity for students to have a mentor who is not necessarily their classroom teacher and conversely, a chance for teachers to build relationships outside of their class rosters. Win-win!
House Points can encourage students to collaborate and work together towards common goals. This can help students develop teamwork skills and learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.
Your Houses also tend to promote alignment between school-wide priorities and individual teacher classroom management practices.
For a great example of this, you should check out how Bowmar Elementary transformed its classroom management with 486K House Points.
House Points provides a healthy competitive outlet for students. This can help students stay motivated and strive to achieve their best. When used correctly, competition can become a vital classroom management tool. Don’t forget the scoreboard!
House Points can provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. This can happen through taking on leadership roles within their House or by participating in House activities like Del Valle Elementary’s “Level Up” event.
House Point systems can foster a sense of ownership among students. This can help students feel more connected to their school and motivated to succeed.
A House System can also help to improve communication between teachers and students. As David Olinger said on our podcast, Houses provide a framework for organizing school activities and could become a catalyst for school culture change.
Starting your own House Points program has never been easier. We have distilled everything you need to do down into six easy steps to launch your own House system that even a muggle could follow. 🧙♂️
There are several factors to consider when setting up Houses:
How large will each House be? This is important because you want to hit a sweet spot with House size where every student feels connected and where you have enough Houses to compete in House competitions.
Last, but certainly not least, is determining the names of each House. Schools take many different routes.
Some choose to focus on school history, others make them based on character traits, you can incorporate different languages, or even allow the students in each House to create their name!
The options are endless so we created a database of all of the House Names in the LiveSchool Community to help get you started.
The two most common ways to sort students into Houses are by grade level or across grade levels. So, do you want older and younger students together in one House?
Typically, having students in the same grade-level House is easier for scheduling. However, schools with Houses across grade levels have found major benefits in having older and younger students together which encourages mentoring relationships.
Feel free to create your sorting hat if you want to lean into the wizardry.
When Houses are used by teachers, they can keep track of PBIS points in the classroom using paper, the board, or an Excel spreadsheet. The tool you choose should be simple and shouldn’t demand too much time from teachers.
You might want to consider LiveSchool’s House Points feature so you have a digital solution for your House System organization. We even have a handy guide to launching House Points to guide your work.
Building your behavior rubric can be a collaborative effort between students, staff, and administrators.
LiveSchool allows you to add the behaviors to the dashboard, which serves as a consistent reminder to students and teachers throughout the day.
You’ll probably consult with teachers throughout steps 1-3, but now it’s time to roll out House Points to everyone.
Train them on how to use the behavior management tool, and emphasize their role in making the House System a success.
The majority of your House Points will be distributed by your teaching staff. The more excited they are about the program the more that excitement will be transferred to your students!
LiveSchool can help with your training as well!
Now it’s time to bring the noise! These are just a few of our favorite ways to announce your Houses:
Popping balloons would work great with younger students! Place a small piece of paper with the house name on it inside the balloon. Blow the balloon up. Write the child’s name on the balloon with a marker. Have students sit on their balloons to pop them and reveal their house.
For this idea, Houses would need to have house wristbands already. As a surprise, staff members can place the House bracelets in students’ lockers after school hours.
Then, when students come to campus the next day, staff members can count down over the intercom for students to open their lockers and find out their house.
Typically used in schools that already have a House System established, The Draft could be a formal annual event with round tables, decor, and semi-formal attire. Parents and guardians can attend the Draft party sitting with their students.
So no, you don’t need to rent out the Hogwarts Express to launch your Houses. But for an audio option, you might want to listen to our podcast on launching your own House System.
Creating this community is more than just placing students in a House. Like a team, you need to provide time for students to meet, connect, and develop leaders within the Houses.
That’s where House Meetings come in.
A House Meeting is a regularly scheduled time for the House to come together and build relationships. There is typically an agenda but the main goal is to allow students to connect.
The staff members in each House can be in the meeting, as well, but their role should take a back seat to the students. Creating House Leaders is a great way to help provide structure for the students.
For more on including your students in the planning process, check out our podcast with Eric Keiper on pushing your school to greatness through Houses. Your students can also be called upon to teach your school-wide expectations.
House Events can be a great opportunity for students to build community with their Housemates and continue cultivating House engagement and pride.
When it comes to House Celebrations, we have a few ideas that are sure to be a hit with your school community:
Two words that most people love: dance and party! So bring them together and get funky with your students! You can choose to have a decade theme or just play the hits to ensure your students have a blast!
Learn more about running a dance party celebration here!
Because who doesn’t love to wear pajamas to school? The House that wins this reward will love showing off their PJs with their Housemates!
It doesn’t have to be Homecoming Week to have a dress-up or dress-down day! You can find additional details about utilizing this reward here!
The smell of popcorn in a school will make everyone wish they won this reward! Consider having students all get together in the gym or auditorium for the movie or have them split up into teacher’s rooms for a special screening.
An exciting way to continue the momentum of spirit, community, and culture in your school’s Houses is to give opportunities for students to earn House Points through House challenges.
Yep, we have a few great community-submitted ideas for challenges as well:
Create a theme for each day of the week and award points to the Houses that have the most participation for each theme. Some examples we’ve seen in the LiveSchool Community include House Pride Day where you wear your House colors, wacky sock day and college day.
With Battle of the Books, a group of students from each House would be assigned books to read and attend House competitions. At the event, Houses would test their knowledge of the books they had read.
Esports has become extremely popular over the last few years. People can now watch teams compete in online video games just like they watch teams play football.
Houses can have Esports teams compete in a school tournament where they duel the other houses in common games like League of Legends and Minecraft.
Most schools in the LiveSchool Community choose to do a House Cup which lasts the entire school year.
Then they also include shorter competitions which typically last a month or quarter to keep the student engagement rolling all year round. Let the good times roll!
For more on House Point Competitions check out “How Maranatha Christian Schools develops camaraderie and community using House Points”.
The ultimate purpose of having Houses is to create a school culture that revolves around positive student behavior.
To assist in this behavior management objective, you may want to combine Houses with other proven strategies like PBIS, classroom management, student rewards, school reward stores, and a strong behavior data dashboard.
That feeling of belonging provides safety. Not in the physical sense necessarily, but in the psychological. When we feel that we belong we feel safe to take risks, we feel safe to put ourselves out there.
That has a great deal of value in and out of the classroom. We need students to feel comfortable taking academic risks so they can learn at a high level.
This also works amazingly well for motivation. The whole concept of being on a team develops a shared responsibility aspect for your school.
Your students make it their school. It’s we, not me.
But everyone can’t be an athlete, and there are only so many clubs available. So how do you make every student in your school feel like they are a part of the team?
You create small communities in your school that will include everyone. Those communities are called “Houses”.
A House Points system is a behavior strategy where students are divided into teams called Houses. The students within each House work together to earn points for positive behavior, support each other, and compete against other Houses or earn rewards.
Usually, each student is assigned to a House during the House induction ceremony, and they stay with that House until they leave the school.
In a recent LiveSchool webinar, Sabrina Hughes-Tate, a Gifted and Talented Teacher in Nashville, pointed out that House systems do more than promote positive behavior and deter negative behavior.
They also promote community, self-esteem, self-identity, teamwork, and pride.
Another advantage of House Points is that you can customize your behavior rubric to fit your student’s needs, wants, and personalities.
For a great example, you can look no further than how “Antioch Middle School built its community with 1.5 million House Points”.
House Points can improve behavior, but they also have some very real cultural benefits beyond student discipline:
A House System can help students feel a sense of belonging and community within a larger school.
This can be especially important for students who are new to a school or who may feel isolated. Developing school spirit through House Points can be a big difference-maker for your students.
Speaking of belonging, don’t forget that your teachers are a part of each House! This provides an opportunity for students to have a mentor who is not necessarily their classroom teacher and conversely, a chance for teachers to build relationships outside of their class rosters. Win-win!
House Points can encourage students to collaborate and work together towards common goals. This can help students develop teamwork skills and learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.
Your Houses also tend to promote alignment between school-wide priorities and individual teacher classroom management practices.
For a great example of this, you should check out how Bowmar Elementary transformed its classroom management with 486K House Points.
House Points provides a healthy competitive outlet for students. This can help students stay motivated and strive to achieve their best. When used correctly, competition can become a vital classroom management tool. Don’t forget the scoreboard!
House Points can provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. This can happen through taking on leadership roles within their House or by participating in House activities like Del Valle Elementary’s “Level Up” event.
House Point systems can foster a sense of ownership among students. This can help students feel more connected to their school and motivated to succeed.
A House System can also help to improve communication between teachers and students. As David Olinger said on our podcast, Houses provide a framework for organizing school activities and could become a catalyst for school culture change.
Starting your own House Points program has never been easier. We have distilled everything you need to do down into six easy steps to launch your own House system that even a muggle could follow. 🧙♂️
There are several factors to consider when setting up Houses:
How large will each House be? This is important because you want to hit a sweet spot with House size where every student feels connected and where you have enough Houses to compete in House competitions.
Last, but certainly not least, is determining the names of each House. Schools take many different routes.
Some choose to focus on school history, others make them based on character traits, you can incorporate different languages, or even allow the students in each House to create their name!
The options are endless so we created a database of all of the House Names in the LiveSchool Community to help get you started.
The two most common ways to sort students into Houses are by grade level or across grade levels. So, do you want older and younger students together in one House?
Typically, having students in the same grade-level House is easier for scheduling. However, schools with Houses across grade levels have found major benefits in having older and younger students together which encourages mentoring relationships.
Feel free to create your sorting hat if you want to lean into the wizardry.
When Houses are used by teachers, they can keep track of PBIS points in the classroom using paper, the board, or an Excel spreadsheet. The tool you choose should be simple and shouldn’t demand too much time from teachers.
You might want to consider LiveSchool’s House Points feature so you have a digital solution for your House System organization. We even have a handy guide to launching House Points to guide your work.
Building your behavior rubric can be a collaborative effort between students, staff, and administrators.
LiveSchool allows you to add the behaviors to the dashboard, which serves as a consistent reminder to students and teachers throughout the day.
You’ll probably consult with teachers throughout steps 1-3, but now it’s time to roll out House Points to everyone.
Train them on how to use the behavior management tool, and emphasize their role in making the House System a success.
The majority of your House Points will be distributed by your teaching staff. The more excited they are about the program the more that excitement will be transferred to your students!
LiveSchool can help with your training as well!
Now it’s time to bring the noise! These are just a few of our favorite ways to announce your Houses:
Popping balloons would work great with younger students! Place a small piece of paper with the house name on it inside the balloon. Blow the balloon up. Write the child’s name on the balloon with a marker. Have students sit on their balloons to pop them and reveal their house.
For this idea, Houses would need to have house wristbands already. As a surprise, staff members can place the House bracelets in students’ lockers after school hours.
Then, when students come to campus the next day, staff members can count down over the intercom for students to open their lockers and find out their house.
Typically used in schools that already have a House System established, The Draft could be a formal annual event with round tables, decor, and semi-formal attire. Parents and guardians can attend the Draft party sitting with their students.
So no, you don’t need to rent out the Hogwarts Express to launch your Houses. But for an audio option, you might want to listen to our podcast on launching your own House System.
Creating this community is more than just placing students in a House. Like a team, you need to provide time for students to meet, connect, and develop leaders within the Houses.
That’s where House Meetings come in.
A House Meeting is a regularly scheduled time for the House to come together and build relationships. There is typically an agenda but the main goal is to allow students to connect.
The staff members in each House can be in the meeting, as well, but their role should take a back seat to the students. Creating House Leaders is a great way to help provide structure for the students.
For more on including your students in the planning process, check out our podcast with Eric Keiper on pushing your school to greatness through Houses. Your students can also be called upon to teach your school-wide expectations.
House Events can be a great opportunity for students to build community with their Housemates and continue cultivating House engagement and pride.
When it comes to House Celebrations, we have a few ideas that are sure to be a hit with your school community:
Two words that most people love: dance and party! So bring them together and get funky with your students! You can choose to have a decade theme or just play the hits to ensure your students have a blast!
Learn more about running a dance party celebration here!
Because who doesn’t love to wear pajamas to school? The House that wins this reward will love showing off their PJs with their Housemates!
It doesn’t have to be Homecoming Week to have a dress-up or dress-down day! You can find additional details about utilizing this reward here!
The smell of popcorn in a school will make everyone wish they won this reward! Consider having students all get together in the gym or auditorium for the movie or have them split up into teacher’s rooms for a special screening.
An exciting way to continue the momentum of spirit, community, and culture in your school’s Houses is to give opportunities for students to earn House Points through House challenges.
Yep, we have a few great community-submitted ideas for challenges as well:
Create a theme for each day of the week and award points to the Houses that have the most participation for each theme. Some examples we’ve seen in the LiveSchool Community include House Pride Day where you wear your House colors, wacky sock day and college day.
With Battle of the Books, a group of students from each House would be assigned books to read and attend House competitions. At the event, Houses would test their knowledge of the books they had read.
Esports has become extremely popular over the last few years. People can now watch teams compete in online video games just like they watch teams play football.
Houses can have Esports teams compete in a school tournament where they duel the other houses in common games like League of Legends and Minecraft.
Most schools in the LiveSchool Community choose to do a House Cup which lasts the entire school year.
Then they also include shorter competitions which typically last a month or quarter to keep the student engagement rolling all year round. Let the good times roll!
For more on House Point Competitions check out “How Maranatha Christian Schools develops camaraderie and community using House Points”.
The ultimate purpose of having Houses is to create a school culture that revolves around positive student behavior.
To assist in this behavior management objective, you may want to combine Houses with other proven strategies like PBIS, classroom management, student rewards, school reward stores, and a strong behavior data dashboard.
We are social beings, and we all seek to belong on some level. Students tend to find other students like themselves to interact with. Even the most independent adults will find their tribe in one way or another.
That feeling of belonging provides safety. Not in the physical sense necessarily, but in the psychological. When we feel that we belong we feel safe to take risks, we feel safe to put ourselves out there.
That has a great deal of value in and out of the classroom. We need students to feel comfortable taking academic risks so they can learn at a high level.
This also works amazingly well for motivation. The whole concept of being on a team develops a shared responsibility aspect for your school.
Your students make it their school. It’s we, not me.
But everyone can’t be an athlete, and there are only so many clubs available. So how do you make every student in your school feel like they are a part of the team?
You create small communities in your school that will include everyone. Those communities are called “Houses”.
A House Points system is a behavior strategy where students are divided into teams called Houses. The students within each House work together to earn points for positive behavior, support each other, and compete against other Houses or earn rewards.
Usually, each student is assigned to a House during the House induction ceremony, and they stay with that House until they leave the school.
In a recent LiveSchool webinar, Sabrina Hughes-Tate, a Gifted and Talented Teacher in Nashville, pointed out that House systems do more than promote positive behavior and deter negative behavior.
They also promote community, self-esteem, self-identity, teamwork, and pride.
Another advantage of House Points is that you can customize your behavior rubric to fit your student’s needs, wants, and personalities.
For a great example, you can look no further than how “Antioch Middle School built its community with 1.5 million House Points”.
House Points can improve behavior, but they also have some very real cultural benefits beyond student discipline:
A House System can help students feel a sense of belonging and community within a larger school.
This can be especially important for students who are new to a school or who may feel isolated. Developing school spirit through House Points can be a big difference-maker for your students.
Speaking of belonging, don’t forget that your teachers are a part of each House! This provides an opportunity for students to have a mentor who is not necessarily their classroom teacher and conversely, a chance for teachers to build relationships outside of their class rosters. Win-win!
House Points can encourage students to collaborate and work together towards common goals. This can help students develop teamwork skills and learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.
Your Houses also tend to promote alignment between school-wide priorities and individual teacher classroom management practices.
For a great example of this, you should check out how Bowmar Elementary transformed its classroom management with 486K House Points.
House Points provides a healthy competitive outlet for students. This can help students stay motivated and strive to achieve their best. When used correctly, competition can become a vital classroom management tool. Don’t forget the scoreboard!
House Points can provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. This can happen through taking on leadership roles within their House or by participating in House activities like Del Valle Elementary’s “Level Up” event.
House Point systems can foster a sense of ownership among students. This can help students feel more connected to their school and motivated to succeed.
A House System can also help to improve communication between teachers and students. As David Olinger said on our podcast, Houses provide a framework for organizing school activities and could become a catalyst for school culture change.
Starting your own House Points program has never been easier. We have distilled everything you need to do down into six easy steps to launch your own House system that even a muggle could follow. 🧙♂️
There are several factors to consider when setting up Houses:
How large will each House be? This is important because you want to hit a sweet spot with House size where every student feels connected and where you have enough Houses to compete in House competitions.
Last, but certainly not least, is determining the names of each House. Schools take many different routes.
Some choose to focus on school history, others make them based on character traits, you can incorporate different languages, or even allow the students in each House to create their name!
The options are endless so we created a database of all of the House Names in the LiveSchool Community to help get you started.
The two most common ways to sort students into Houses are by grade level or across grade levels. So, do you want older and younger students together in one House?
Typically, having students in the same grade-level House is easier for scheduling. However, schools with Houses across grade levels have found major benefits in having older and younger students together which encourages mentoring relationships.
Feel free to create your sorting hat if you want to lean into the wizardry.
When Houses are used by teachers, they can keep track of PBIS points in the classroom using paper, the board, or an Excel spreadsheet. The tool you choose should be simple and shouldn’t demand too much time from teachers.
You might want to consider LiveSchool’s House Points feature so you have a digital solution for your House System organization. We even have a handy guide to launching House Points to guide your work.
Building your behavior rubric can be a collaborative effort between students, staff, and administrators.
LiveSchool allows you to add the behaviors to the dashboard, which serves as a consistent reminder to students and teachers throughout the day.
You’ll probably consult with teachers throughout steps 1-3, but now it’s time to roll out House Points to everyone.
Train them on how to use the behavior management tool, and emphasize their role in making the House System a success.
The majority of your House Points will be distributed by your teaching staff. The more excited they are about the program the more that excitement will be transferred to your students!
LiveSchool can help with your training as well!
Now it’s time to bring the noise! These are just a few of our favorite ways to announce your Houses:
Popping balloons would work great with younger students! Place a small piece of paper with the house name on it inside the balloon. Blow the balloon up. Write the child’s name on the balloon with a marker. Have students sit on their balloons to pop them and reveal their house.
For this idea, Houses would need to have house wristbands already. As a surprise, staff members can place the House bracelets in students’ lockers after school hours.
Then, when students come to campus the next day, staff members can count down over the intercom for students to open their lockers and find out their house.
Typically used in schools that already have a House System established, The Draft could be a formal annual event with round tables, decor, and semi-formal attire. Parents and guardians can attend the Draft party sitting with their students.
So no, you don’t need to rent out the Hogwarts Express to launch your Houses. But for an audio option, you might want to listen to our podcast on launching your own House System.
Creating this community is more than just placing students in a House. Like a team, you need to provide time for students to meet, connect, and develop leaders within the Houses.
That’s where House Meetings come in.
A House Meeting is a regularly scheduled time for the House to come together and build relationships. There is typically an agenda but the main goal is to allow students to connect.
The staff members in each House can be in the meeting, as well, but their role should take a back seat to the students. Creating House Leaders is a great way to help provide structure for the students.
For more on including your students in the planning process, check out our podcast with Eric Keiper on pushing your school to greatness through Houses. Your students can also be called upon to teach your school-wide expectations.
House Events can be a great opportunity for students to build community with their Housemates and continue cultivating House engagement and pride.
When it comes to House Celebrations, we have a few ideas that are sure to be a hit with your school community:
Two words that most people love: dance and party! So bring them together and get funky with your students! You can choose to have a decade theme or just play the hits to ensure your students have a blast!
Learn more about running a dance party celebration here!
Because who doesn’t love to wear pajamas to school? The House that wins this reward will love showing off their PJs with their Housemates!
It doesn’t have to be Homecoming Week to have a dress-up or dress-down day! You can find additional details about utilizing this reward here!
The smell of popcorn in a school will make everyone wish they won this reward! Consider having students all get together in the gym or auditorium for the movie or have them split up into teacher’s rooms for a special screening.
An exciting way to continue the momentum of spirit, community, and culture in your school’s Houses is to give opportunities for students to earn House Points through House challenges.
Yep, we have a few great community-submitted ideas for challenges as well:
Create a theme for each day of the week and award points to the Houses that have the most participation for each theme. Some examples we’ve seen in the LiveSchool Community include House Pride Day where you wear your House colors, wacky sock day and college day.
With Battle of the Books, a group of students from each House would be assigned books to read and attend House competitions. At the event, Houses would test their knowledge of the books they had read.
Esports has become extremely popular over the last few years. People can now watch teams compete in online video games just like they watch teams play football.
Houses can have Esports teams compete in a school tournament where they duel the other houses in common games like League of Legends and Minecraft.
Most schools in the LiveSchool Community choose to do a House Cup which lasts the entire school year.
Then they also include shorter competitions which typically last a month or quarter to keep the student engagement rolling all year round. Let the good times roll!
For more on House Point Competitions check out “How Maranatha Christian Schools develops camaraderie and community using House Points”.
The ultimate purpose of having Houses is to create a school culture that revolves around positive student behavior.
To assist in this behavior management objective, you may want to combine Houses with other proven strategies like PBIS, classroom management, student rewards, school reward stores, and a strong behavior data dashboard.
We are social beings, and we all seek to belong on some level. Students tend to find other students like themselves to interact with. Even the most independent adults will find their tribe in one way or another.
That feeling of belonging provides safety. Not in the physical sense necessarily, but in the psychological. When we feel that we belong we feel safe to take risks, we feel safe to put ourselves out there.
That has a great deal of value in and out of the classroom. We need students to feel comfortable taking academic risks so they can learn at a high level.
This also works amazingly well for motivation. The whole concept of being on a team develops a shared responsibility aspect for your school.
Your students make it their school. It’s we, not me.
But everyone can’t be an athlete, and there are only so many clubs available. So how do you make every student in your school feel like they are a part of the team?
You create small communities in your school that will include everyone. Those communities are called “Houses”.
A House Points system is a behavior strategy where students are divided into teams called Houses. The students within each House work together to earn points for positive behavior, support each other, and compete against other Houses or earn rewards.
Usually, each student is assigned to a House during the House induction ceremony, and they stay with that House until they leave the school.
In a recent LiveSchool webinar, Sabrina Hughes-Tate, a Gifted and Talented Teacher in Nashville, pointed out that House systems do more than promote positive behavior and deter negative behavior.
They also promote community, self-esteem, self-identity, teamwork, and pride.
Another advantage of House Points is that you can customize your behavior rubric to fit your student’s needs, wants, and personalities.
For a great example, you can look no further than how “Antioch Middle School built its community with 1.5 million House Points”.
House Points can improve behavior, but they also have some very real cultural benefits beyond student discipline:
A House System can help students feel a sense of belonging and community within a larger school.
This can be especially important for students who are new to a school or who may feel isolated. Developing school spirit through House Points can be a big difference-maker for your students.
Speaking of belonging, don’t forget that your teachers are a part of each House! This provides an opportunity for students to have a mentor who is not necessarily their classroom teacher and conversely, a chance for teachers to build relationships outside of their class rosters. Win-win!
House Points can encourage students to collaborate and work together towards common goals. This can help students develop teamwork skills and learn how to resolve conflict peacefully.
Your Houses also tend to promote alignment between school-wide priorities and individual teacher classroom management practices.
For a great example of this, you should check out how Bowmar Elementary transformed its classroom management with 486K House Points.
House Points provides a healthy competitive outlet for students. This can help students stay motivated and strive to achieve their best. When used correctly, competition can become a vital classroom management tool. Don’t forget the scoreboard!
House Points can provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. This can happen through taking on leadership roles within their House or by participating in House activities like Del Valle Elementary’s “Level Up” event.
House Point systems can foster a sense of ownership among students. This can help students feel more connected to their school and motivated to succeed.
A House System can also help to improve communication between teachers and students. As David Olinger said on our podcast, Houses provide a framework for organizing school activities and could become a catalyst for school culture change.
Starting your own House Points program has never been easier. We have distilled everything you need to do down into six easy steps to launch your own House system that even a muggle could follow. 🧙♂️
There are several factors to consider when setting up Houses:
How large will each House be? This is important because you want to hit a sweet spot with House size where every student feels connected and where you have enough Houses to compete in House competitions.
Last, but certainly not least, is determining the names of each House. Schools take many different routes.
Some choose to focus on school history, others make them based on character traits, you can incorporate different languages, or even allow the students in each House to create their name!
The options are endless so we created a database of all of the House Names in the LiveSchool Community to help get you started.
The two most common ways to sort students into Houses are by grade level or across grade levels. So, do you want older and younger students together in one House?
Typically, having students in the same grade-level House is easier for scheduling. However, schools with Houses across grade levels have found major benefits in having older and younger students together which encourages mentoring relationships.
Feel free to create your sorting hat if you want to lean into the wizardry.
When Houses are used by teachers, they can keep track of PBIS points in the classroom using paper, the board, or an Excel spreadsheet. The tool you choose should be simple and shouldn’t demand too much time from teachers.
You might want to consider LiveSchool’s House Points feature so you have a digital solution for your House System organization. We even have a handy guide to launching House Points to guide your work.
Building your behavior rubric can be a collaborative effort between students, staff, and administrators.
LiveSchool allows you to add the behaviors to the dashboard, which serves as a consistent reminder to students and teachers throughout the day.
You’ll probably consult with teachers throughout steps 1-3, but now it’s time to roll out House Points to everyone.
Train them on how to use the behavior management tool, and emphasize their role in making the House System a success.
The majority of your House Points will be distributed by your teaching staff. The more excited they are about the program the more that excitement will be transferred to your students!
LiveSchool can help with your training as well!
Now it’s time to bring the noise! These are just a few of our favorite ways to announce your Houses:
Popping balloons would work great with younger students! Place a small piece of paper with the house name on it inside the balloon. Blow the balloon up. Write the child’s name on the balloon with a marker. Have students sit on their balloons to pop them and reveal their house.
For this idea, Houses would need to have house wristbands already. As a surprise, staff members can place the House bracelets in students’ lockers after school hours.
Then, when students come to campus the next day, staff members can count down over the intercom for students to open their lockers and find out their house.
Typically used in schools that already have a House System established, The Draft could be a formal annual event with round tables, decor, and semi-formal attire. Parents and guardians can attend the Draft party sitting with their students.
So no, you don’t need to rent out the Hogwarts Express to launch your Houses. But for an audio option, you might want to listen to our podcast on launching your own House System.
Creating this community is more than just placing students in a House. Like a team, you need to provide time for students to meet, connect, and develop leaders within the Houses.
That’s where House Meetings come in.
A House Meeting is a regularly scheduled time for the House to come together and build relationships. There is typically an agenda but the main goal is to allow students to connect.
The staff members in each House can be in the meeting, as well, but their role should take a back seat to the students. Creating House Leaders is a great way to help provide structure for the students.
For more on including your students in the planning process, check out our podcast with Eric Keiper on pushing your school to greatness through Houses. Your students can also be called upon to teach your school-wide expectations.
House Events can be a great opportunity for students to build community with their Housemates and continue cultivating House engagement and pride.
When it comes to House Celebrations, we have a few ideas that are sure to be a hit with your school community:
Two words that most people love: dance and party! So bring them together and get funky with your students! You can choose to have a decade theme or just play the hits to ensure your students have a blast!
Learn more about running a dance party celebration here!
Because who doesn’t love to wear pajamas to school? The House that wins this reward will love showing off their PJs with their Housemates!
It doesn’t have to be Homecoming Week to have a dress-up or dress-down day! You can find additional details about utilizing this reward here!
The smell of popcorn in a school will make everyone wish they won this reward! Consider having students all get together in the gym or auditorium for the movie or have them split up into teacher’s rooms for a special screening.
An exciting way to continue the momentum of spirit, community, and culture in your school’s Houses is to give opportunities for students to earn House Points through House challenges.
Yep, we have a few great community-submitted ideas for challenges as well:
Create a theme for each day of the week and award points to the Houses that have the most participation for each theme. Some examples we’ve seen in the LiveSchool Community include House Pride Day where you wear your House colors, wacky sock day and college day.
With Battle of the Books, a group of students from each House would be assigned books to read and attend House competitions. At the event, Houses would test their knowledge of the books they had read.
Esports has become extremely popular over the last few years. People can now watch teams compete in online video games just like they watch teams play football.
Houses can have Esports teams compete in a school tournament where they duel the other houses in common games like League of Legends and Minecraft.
Most schools in the LiveSchool Community choose to do a House Cup which lasts the entire school year.
Then they also include shorter competitions which typically last a month or quarter to keep the student engagement rolling all year round. Let the good times roll!
For more on House Point Competitions check out “How Maranatha Christian Schools develops camaraderie and community using House Points”.
The ultimate purpose of having Houses is to create a school culture that revolves around positive student behavior.
To assist in this behavior management objective, you may want to combine Houses with other proven strategies like PBIS, classroom management, student rewards, school reward stores, and a strong behavior data dashboard.
Every day, the LiveSchool Vision becomes reality.
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