House Competition

One of the major events in 1967 was the establishment of a House system in the Secondary Department. The names of the Houses were chosen in order to link the four men with the Historic associations of the school property. The names Scott, Shackleton and Wilson were synonymous with the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration. Sir Charles Bowen was the major owner of the property that the school now stands on.

Scott, Shackleton, Wilson, all commemorated Antarctic explorers who were known as visitors to the property. In 1860 Charles Bowen, in the company of Clements Markham (a noted traveller and geographer), crossed the Andes of South America. In 1861 Charles married Markham's sister. Clements Markham later became President of the Royal Geographic Society and as such laid the plans for Robert Scott's Antarctic voyages. It is not surprising that he chose to make Scott's New Zealand headquarters at Middleton.

Each pupil is allocated to one of the following houses:

During the year sports, cultural and service events become part of the House Competition toward a trophy at the end of the year. Pupils are encouraged at each event to wear their house colours and enter into the spirit of the occasion.

The students compete in their houses for Athletics, Swimming, Cross-country, Quiz, Singing and even Chalk Art. During the year there are also Volleyball, Indoor Football, Unihock, Multi-sport and Touch inter-house competitions run by the Sport Department. Inter-house competition during this time is competitive and lots of fun.
A register is kept of the House points throughout the year and the winning house is awarded the House Shield at the Senior College prize giving.

Every house has Staff involved in running House Assemblies. Every house has two house captains and two deputies to organize the house events and their teams.

House Winners