Houses

The LPA House System

We relaunched our House System in September 2023 to establish a caring, supportive environment in which every student feels a valued member of a small ‘family unit’, the tutor group, within a slightly larger ‘family unit’, the house, within an even larger ‘family unit’ the whole school community.

The House System is the bedrock of our community providing our students with a sense of belonging and pride.

“True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” Brené Brown

We took careful consideration with re-naming our Houses. We involved both staff and students in the decision-making process, deliberating over and carefully considering various themes before the theme of ‘birds’ emerged from one of our student voice discussions and developed into ‘birds of prey’. Students and staff talked about birds ‘souring high in the sky’ and our students ‘aiming high’ which ties into our LPA core values of Ambition, Aspiration, Courage and Resilience. Once names were agreed upon and logos created a big reveal took place where our Heads of House and House Champions (staff) were announced along with the House names and logos.

The House System supports our students, develops their strength within a group and create bonds with students of all different ages, which mirrors everyday life. We promote and provide opportunity for student voice, student responsibility, team building, leadership skills and co-operation. The house system is underpinned by the academy core values with competitions organised to develop the characters of each individual student.

Whilst we are four houses, we are one community creating a school which the students, parents, staff, governors and wider community can be proud of.

The four Houses provide team spirit and competition across not only Lodge Park Academy but the David Ross Education Trust.

This competitive angle is used to raise standards in areas of Sport, Music and Drama, Attendance, Homework, Academic Success, Community, Charity Links and Enterprise.

Our four Houses are:

The house competition calendar is carefully structured to provide a broad range of competitions. Competitions are split into strands including Community, Performance, Subject Specific, Sport and Academic (Attitude to Learning, (ATL) & Attendance).

Competitions are selected in a number of ways including from student voice / feedback to ensure students get an offer to meet their interests.

Community competitions are extremely important to engage our community. We raise funds for local charities such as the Corby Foodbank and each House has selected their own local charity that they will be fundraising for during the year.

Student Leadership Teams

Our Student Leadership comprises of 4 House Captains, a Media and Charity Lead for each house and representatives for each tutor group. They meet every 2 weeks to discuss upcoming House competitions, charity events and other topics of interest. The House Captains meet weekly with the Senior Leadership Team and the games maker to discuss events. They take part in assemblies, support House competitions and plan an event for their local charity. Their roles support them to further develop the school values and their leadership skills.

House Championship

At the end of the academic year the winning house are rewarded with an afternoon of Celebration. In Summer 2024 Goshawk House were able to enjoy an afternoon of inflatable fun and food out on the field.

In addition to Year group assemblies House assemblies take place weekly where the House Totaliser is shared with the students and their tutors to maintain high motivation.

Houseopoly

We have a Tutor group rewards-based initiative where each tutor group works their way around their Houseopoly board in return for various milestone rewards,

Tutor groups are rewarded with houseopoly cards through attendance, Attitude to learning, being organised and equipped for lessons, academic excellence, behaviour, lineup and tutor group of the week.

On reaching Chance or Community Chest on their Houseopoly boards tutor groups are set under cover missions to complete in return for a set amount of house points.

Rewards include Tutor Award, Head of House reward, Vice Principal reward and Principal's.

On completion of the Houseopoly board tutor groups are rewarded with a three-course sit down lunch with their tutor where the menu is selected by them and served by the Senior Leadership Team.