House system unites Upper School students.
Although both schools use a house system for their students, Principal Tim Kraynak (WC ‘94) wants to be clear that the one at Worthington Christian Upper School has very little in common with the one at Hogwarts, the fiendish prep school of the Harry Potter books and movies.
There are no sorting hats or Quidditch tournaments like in the J.K. Rowling series. According to Kraynak, houses are used to build a sense of community.
“It’s sort of like Harry Potter, but the whole purpose of the houses is to increase student engagement and community,” Kraynak said. “There might be some new kids who don’t have an extracurricular connection athletically or artistically.
“(Placing students in houses) is another opportunity for students to meet new people and get involved with folks who aren’t in their social group. Over the years, it’s been a great connection point for some students who may not connect with a team or a program.”
The History
The idea for a house system didn’t come from Hollywood but from Bishop Hartley High School. In 2015, then-principal Buzz Inboden sent a group of teachers to Hartley, which had started a similar program.
“After visiting Hartley in May 2015 and talking with their house leadership team, we launched houses at WC in the fall of 2015,” said Dawn McMahon, a high school science teacher who heads up the House program with Dan Roads, a high school social studies teacher, and boys soccer coach.
“It was exciting to think about creating a system through which we could work on many issues that arise at WC, including relationships, discipleship, and welcoming new students.”
How It Works
The six houses are each named after Latin words associated with one’s journey as Christ’s followers: Fides (Faith), Gratia (Grace), Lux (Light), Pax (Peace), Veritas (Truth), and Vita (Life). Each house has a color, Bible verse, shield, and mascot, and three high schoolers and two eighth graders are selected as Heads of House along with an academic advisor.
“We haven’t noticed the students shifting to represent their house names, but we do hope that as a school community, we represent all of these virtues,” Roads said.
At the new student orientation each fall, incoming seventh graders are assigned to a house they stay with until graduation. They meet the head of their household (the student leader) and are given a school “family.”
“Houses have given WC students a place to belong from day one,” McMahon said. “It can make the transition to a new school much easier to know some familiar faces and feel a sense of belonging before the year begins.”
The size of the population varies from middle school, where houses have 30-34 students, to high school, where the population swells to 60-66 students.
Each house is divided into a smaller set of students called families. At the high school, each house has three families consisting of 20-23 students; at the middle school, there are two families of 15-17 students inside each house. Each family has selected students who serve as leaders.
“Families provide a smaller, more intimate space for discipleship and mentorship among students,” Roads said. “Family time is a space where we pray, serve, share, and build community. “
How the House System Makes an Impact
The impact of the Worthington Christian Houses reaches far beyond the school’s doors. Houses play a vital role in service-learning initiatives. Past activities have included:
- Packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child;
- Sponsoring students at Worthington Christian’s sister school, Ensanche Altagracia Elementary School in the Dominican Republic;
- Creating blankets for local homeless missions and food packages for Lifeline Ohio;
- Making cards for veterans and
- Running Thanksgiving food drives.
The only similarity between the houses of Hogwarts and Worthington Christian is a sense of rivalry among the houses. Each month, there’s a friendly competition among WC’s six houses. It can range from dodgeball to the infamous lip-synching contest.
“Our Heads of Household (student leaders) make house competitions energetic, unifying, competitive, electric, passionate, fun, loud, creative, challenging and exciting,” McMahon said.
“The competitions create an exciting change of pace during the school day once a month and bring together students from different groups to compete as a united front,” Roads said.
According to Roads, the Houses are designed to “create a time and space specifically for students and teachers to build meaningful relationships and for true discipleship between them and students of different grade levels.”
“They offer a time for intentional prayer and reflection on the chapel message,” Roads said. “That is a powerful tool for creating a culture of belonging and spiritual growth among our Upper School community,”
Aaron Van Dop, a senior at Worthington Christian and the House system leader, believes that houses can significantly affect a student’s spiritual growth.
“I enjoy our families within the house where we can discuss the spiritual things we’ve been learning in Bible classes,” he said. “That’s probably my favorite part about the house system.”