House Arts Festival Gets Its Comeback

When a student joins Pipers, they become a member of one of four Houses, whose names all have local historical association – Hampden, Mandeville, Milton and Penn. These houses are made up of students from all year groups, which gives a wonderful extra dimension to the social structure and community of the School, especially when it comes to events such as the House Arts Festival.

Previously known as ‘House Music’, the newly named House Arts Festival is a celebration of all the Arts where students from Prep to Sixth Form work together to showcase poetry readings, photography, artwork, dance, music composition and performance, ensuring that everyone has a role to play – whether front and centre or behind-the-scenes.

Each year will have a specific theme that the students performances and portfolio will need to represent - this year the theme is 'Nature', and performance and portfolio work is judged by a cross-section of staff who attend live music performances, view recorded recitals and review submitted artwork compositions.

The students use their weekly House Assembly time as an opportunity to collaborate and rehearse before coming together to showcase what they have produced. House Arts Festival is just one of the ways that the Houses in School play a significant role in the enrichment opportunities for our Students.

The responsibility for the leading of each House lies with the Sixth Form Head of House, their Deputy Head of House, Sports Captain, Charity Representative, Communications Representative and Sixth Form House members. Lower down the School, in Year 6, the Junior House Captain provides leadership for the students in each House in the Prep Department. As well as helping with all the House activities, they collect and collate the House Points earned by the students for good work and effort.

The students develop a sense of commitment to their Houses and enjoy the friendly rivalry during the Inter-House competitions. They identify and integrate with other age groups with the same loyalties and feel part of a unit beyond their immediate peer group.

We can’t wait to see which House lifts the Arts Festival Trophy at the end of this week but suffice to say they have all embraced creativity and teamwork this term.

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