— House System —

Upper School Houses at Westminster Academy

For our older students, the House System provides powerful connections to fellow house members spanning Grades 7–12. Through inspiring, unique traditions, deep connections to the Godly examples of the house namesakes and competition throughout the year that includes everything from the arts to tug-of-war during field days, the houses foster a deep connection to a shared community and a call to a greater purpose.

Beginning in the fall of 2007, Westminster Academy grouped its Upper School students (7th through 12th Graders) into four different “houses” -  each house with an equal number of students and a relatively equal distribution of age and gender. Faculty serve as Housemasters, and select seniors serve as either the House Captain or House Counselors. Both students and faculty remain part of the same house during their tenure.

The purpose of the House System is to provide a structure that fosters a better school culture by creating more accountability, ownership and leadership opportunities among students and faculty in a way that is intentional and personal. Therefore, the fundamental component of the House System is its separation of students and faculty from a large community into smaller ones. In those smaller communities, accountability, ownership and leadership are more purposefully and productively taught and embodied for the ultimate end of building a stronger school community.

Patterned after a traditional approach to the social aspects of a school, and modeled after house systems often seen in European schools, the houses are named for faithful men from early periods of history in the church—Athanasius, Becket, Boniface and Columba. The names were chosen because these men remind us of the struggles that the early church faced and of the faithfulness of God in working in and through His people to further establish and nourish His kingdom. Therefore, their stories are encouraging and their lives of obedience are worth emulating, in that they point us to the obedience of Christ. Each year, the students in each house are reminded of their house namesakes to encourage them to emulate those who have faithfully gone before.

Each house is led by a 12th Grade student, who serves as the House Captain. The Captain is responsible to manage house operations and is accountable to the Director of Houses. Playing a support role to the Captain, the Housemaster is a faculty member whose primary responsibility is student advising, in terms of academic as well as personal and spiritual matters. In a typical week, the houses will meet to discuss house business and to work on house functions. The meetings take place with all of the members; both students and faculty attend the meetings.

Director of Houses

Harvey Kay