Fostering young leaders in the Primary School House System
Students come first in the Primary School House System; however, it looks slightly different from the revamped Senior School House System that was shared earlier.
There are two captains per house, all in Year 6, as they are the “seniors” of the Primary School. These captains are involved in leadership meetings and workshops that help them understand what it means to lead and inspire others. They are learning invaluable leadership skills through these meetings and conference workshops, most recently the online Sustainability and Global Citizenship conference led by d’Arcy Lunn, the Sustainability and Global Citizenship Lead at Education in Motion.
Last year, we piloted some changes to the house captain system in Primary School. The first big change was the introduction of house meetings, where House Captains planned and presented house meetings to all the students in their house from Reception to Year 6. Each year, the structure of house meetings is carefully discussed with student leadership to determine what has worked well and what could be improved.
This year, the House Captains are focusing on being more purpose-driven in house meetings. For instance, they need to know how to engage their audience, drive understanding of the purpose of the meetings, and build team unity. House Captains decide the content in house meetings, which includes discussing and participating in activities that focus on an area of the IB learner profiles (There are 10 including communicator, risk-taker, caring and open-minded). An integral part of these meetings is the practice of house chants to build unity within the house team.
This evolving structure for house leaders gives them the opportunity to decide on key house events such as skipping competitions, the Christmas carol house shout, the Readathon, and sports competitions, which take place throughout the year. In Term 2, House leaders will work with the PE Department to trial a house sporting competition during school hours. Discussions with House Captains about the house Readathon have already started. The Readathon fosters a love of reading and raises funds for charity. The Primary School raised over KRW 11 million the first year it was run and KRW 2 million last year for chosen charities. Our House Captains will be the driving force in this initiative.
In addition to organising events, our eight PS House Captains will also attend a leadership conference in Xi’An, China in late January. At this conference, they will work with other EiM schools on leadership tasks, developing their understanding of how to make change within a community.
Please be on the lookout for what our Primary School House System student leaders have in store for us this year!
By PS House Leaders
