The House System

In an effort to make our big school feel a bit smaller to our students, to facilitate interaction of students in different grade levels, and to provide students with a comprehensive network of support, we initiated the House System in September, 2008.

Organization

The student population of the College is divided into eight distinct units. Two of them are by grade level:

Preps (our first-year students)
Seniors (12^th grade students).

Since Preps are new to the College and since Seniors will soon be leaving the College, it is best to keep students in these grade levels together.

Students in grades 9-11 are placed in one of six HOUSES for the time they are in these grades:

Dulo

Falcons

Flaming Tigers

Golden Lions

Magma

Tangra

Each house is composed of approximately 70 students with an equal number of boys and girls. Also, there is equal representation from each of the three grade levels: 9, 10, and 11.

The Black Cup

Each year the six HOUSES compete in the Black Cup Competition. In addition to intramural sports competitions between the HOUSES during the year (house olympics, football, volleyball, and basketball), HOUSES compete in three additional areas: attendance, academics, and extracurricular participation. The first winner of the Black Cup Competition in 2008-09 was Tangra. The Falcons won the Black Cup Competition in 2009-2010.

Support

Teachers as well are assigned to one of the grade levels or houses and serve as advisors to groups of 8-10 students. Advisors in the six houses will work with their advisees for three years. The role of advisors is to monitor the academic, behavioral, and social progress of their advisees. They also provide support and guidance.

House Leaders and Grade Level Deans provide leadership and oversight of the six houses and two grade levels.

Memos

Teachers and administrators may write informal memos about any student at the College to report on academic or behavioral matters. Memos are composed and distributed electronically to the student in question, the student’s advisor, and the Level Dean or House Leader. In more serious cases, the teacher writing the memo may include the Dean of Students and the student's parents in the list of recipients.

The purpose of writing memos is threefold:

1) to identify academic and behavioral issues when they first develop;

2) to commend academic progress or performance and to recognized positive student actions in the ACS community;

3) to disseminate important information about our students to teachers, advisors, grade level deans or house leaders, and parents.