House System
At Woodville High School, our House System fosters school spirit, enacts our school values, promotes teamwork, and belonging. Our vertical House system welcomes every student into a small supportive community within their House. This system nurtures individuality, promotes leadership, and encourages collaboration, celebrating diversity while building lifelong friendships and a strong work ethic.
Our House System
Woodville High School’s House System fosters school spirit, teamwork, and a sense of belonging. Students are grouped into houses, competing in academic, sporting, and engage in cultural events throughout the year.
The House System encourages friendly competition, leadership, and collaboration, while celebrating diversity and unity within the school community.
As our school grows, we believe how we welcome and incorporate all students and families into our Woodville community so that lifelong friendships are formed, a solid work ethic is nurtured, teamwork is fostered, and leadership will be promoted is vital. A student commencing at Woodville High School becomes a member of a smaller community in their House. They are immediately part of a welcoming supportive environment. The House system is a structure that develops relational learning at Woodville High School and is focused on student learning and wellbeing. Our focus will be to strengthen staff and students’ sense of belonging, welcome, camaraderie and identity. Each House Group will have students from each year level as a vertical grouped, peer supportive environment. The House Group Teacher will stay with the House Group for 6 years to strengthen family relationships and house spirit. Woodville High School has four Houses: Mercury, Jupiter, Sirius, Neptune. The Houses have physical spaces where students will congregate. Within each House, lifelong friendships are formed, a solid work ethic is nurtured, teamwork is fostered, and leadership will be promoted. Students will elevate the spirit of their houses through Academic Awards, House Competitions, Events, Games, Carnivals, Activities, House Spaces, and the Buddy Program/Peer Mentor Program.
Our House Values
Jupiter House
Respectful
We are always respectful to everyone around us. Treating everyone as equals.
Courageous
We always give everything a go. Pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones.
Honest
We are always honest and do the right thing.
Mercury House
Collaboration
We always work as a team and treat everyone as equals.
Communication
We use our amazing communication skills to encourage those around us and work as an effective team.
Competitive
We always give everything a go. Pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones.
Neptune House
Resilient
No matter the challenge, we always bounce back!
Inclusive
We always treat everyone as equals and involve those around us safely and inclusively.
Persevering
We always give everything a go. Pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones.
Sirius House
Integrity
We are honest, and always do the right thing even when no one is watching
Ingenuity
We try to think outside the box. We come up with creative solutions to common problems.
Authenticity
Sirius Dogs are confident and able to show their true selves with pride.
Our Future. Our Place. Our Woodville.
Our House Point System – STARS
Our House system seeks to increase participation and school pride at school events, motivate students to focus on learning and increase school community engagement and participation resulting in stronger learning outcomes for students.
Our students will contribute their unique talents to represent their House in a range of activities across academics, sport, service and co-and cross curricular to earn points toward the Woodville House Cup. While the competition is strong, it encourages our students to try their best as part of their overall house team endeavours.
The House System gives our students responsibility and creates a community to which each student knows they belong and creates integrity and unity across our school. Our School House System allow students to earn points for their House in three areas:
- Citizenship
- Academic
- Participation
When the winning House is awarded the Woodville Cup students from all houses join to celebrate their achievements, demonstrating the good sportsmanship, graduate habits and character we nurture as part of the holistic education at Our Woodville.
Competition challenges students to commit to excellence and teamwork, while maintaining healthy competition between groups of students, providing a common purpose and a sense of belonging, improving motivation, behaviour and student progress. This enacts our high performance goals by getting students to work to help each other build confidence through collaboration; persevering through a task; taking risks as a group to achieve a common goal and learning to be enquiring and creative in a safe atmosphere.
The House System aims to do this by providing House members with enjoyable and competitive House events; thereby allowing students to succeed both in and outside of the classroom. Points are tallied at the end of Term 3 each year to determine the House Cup winners. During the year students participate in the two big House events – Sports Day and Swimming Carnival. Other House activities held throughout the year include:
Specific curriculum area weeks which have a range of activities and individual students are awarded points by staff inline the following guidelines as the reach for the stars.
- House soccer competition
- House basketball competition
- Battle of the Bands
- House debating
- Specific curriculum area weeks which have a range of activities and individual students are awarded points by staff inline the following guidelines as the reach for the stars.
Our House Leaders
House leaders play a vital role for students in supporting their learning, attendance, engagement and wellbeing
The House Leader, in partnership with the Wellbeing Team, is primarily responsible for student wellbeing and for fostering a sense of belonging, inclusion and developing a high-performance culture. The House Leader will support students to develop a sense of personal responsibility in relation to students’ own learning, compliance with school policies and expectations, and their place as a member of our Woodville community. The House Leader will play an important role in creating, developing and fostering a positive culture within their house, which, whilst being unique to the individual house, will encapsulate Woodville High School’s motto, values and aspiration for excellence. Their leadership will ensure exceptional administrative and organisational detail such that the aims of the school house system are achieved. The House Leader works within a Restorative Practices framework, which informs how they interact with students, staff and families. House Leaders have a central role to play in its implementation, facilitation and development. The House Leader will be able to demonstrate a commitment and capacity to actively contribute to and lead whole school improvement initiatives in the domain of student wellbeing, manage major student activities, and a commitment to ongoing professional learning for self and others to enable further development of skills, expertise and teaching capacity.
The House System proactively supports all students to achieve success including using student data to monitor each student’s achievement and progress through the Australian Curriculum and SACE to shape a pathway beyond school.
Emily Kavanagh
Jupiter House Leader
Nigel Gramp
Mercury House Leader
John Katavatis
Neptune House Leader
Daniel Wilksch
Sirius House Leader
House Group Teachers within the House System
As part of our commitment to supporting students’ growth, House Group teachers plays a key role in their school life.
They are present and engaged with students each morning in House Group sessions and the THRIVE program, building strong relationships and understanding each student’s learning needs, wellbeing, interests, and family circumstances.
The House Group teacher serves as the first point of contact for any questions or concerns about your child’s progress or wellbeing. They mentor students identified for additional support and lead discussions for tailored learning plans where needed. They also monitor attendance, track progress, and report on achievements each semester.
Working closely with parents, families, and key staff members, the House Group teacher ensures that your child receives the guidance and support they need to thrive academically and personally. They also contribute to special programs, events, and activities that foster a positive and inclusive school community.
