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House Launch Day Takes Over BIS Houston

By Viola Holmes, British International School of Houston, School Buzz Reporter | April 6, 2021

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Members of the House leadership team dressed up as the school bulldog mascot.
A bean bag throwing contest was one of the activities during Launch Day.
Students from BIS Houston competed in a jumping competition as an activity during Launch Day.
Students from BIS Houston competed in a soccer competition on Launch Day.
Students Agostina T and Cerys G wore House colors to show House pride.
Student Nicole D wore a yellow shirt to show Air pride.

On Friday, March 19th, BIS Houston relaunched their House system after weeks of planning. The four Houses at BIS Houston are called Air, Fire, Earth, and Water after the four elements. Students are assigned a house when they start at BIS Houston and continue to compete for house points on behalf of that house for their whole time at BIS Houston. This helps foster a sense of unity and cooperation—as well as a bit of friendly competition.

In order to revitalize the houses, the student leadership team planned the House Launch Day. This event consisted of a variety of activities, all designed for the students to have fun while having a chance to represent their House. During the day, students came into school wearing House colors (yellow, red, green or blue) and were able to choose competitions to participate in.

There was many physical challenges such as an obstacle course, target shooting, penalty kicks, and more! During tutor time, classes filled out a form containing logic puzzles, earning house points for each correct answer.

The house motto competition culminated in new mottos for each house: ‘We rise high, just like Air’, ‘Fire pride’, ‘Let the Earth spin’, and ‘Kind heart, fierce mind, brave spirit’. Those who participated in the sculpture competition were featured in a presentation sent to the rest of the school and winning the t-shirt competition meant getting your design actually produced on t-shirts for students to buy in the spirit store.

One week later, the results were revealed to each year through a presentation. After listening to all the individual winners for each competition, the students eagerly awaited the knowledge of which House had prevailed over the others to earn the most house points. All House had performed admirably, and the totals were close. But there can be only one winner. The results were in and the victor was Fire!

This revitalization of the House system was a clear success with students of all ages participating in the large range of activities, proud to represent their House and help earn house points. House Launch Day will mark the beginning of a new era of House pride at school and will hopefully be followed by many more House events, some already in the works for this year. After the separation COVID-19 has forced upon the school, the House system should help everyone feel a little bit more together (while remaining 6 feet apart).