At The Charter School North Dulwich, we encourage pupils to ‘work hard’, ‘be kind’ and ‘do the right thing’, and to be part of a family with their peers, as well as to foster a healthy attitude towards competition. This is exemplified by the rationale behind our School House system. Pupils at Charter School North Dulwich actively participate with each other to promote a family atmosphere throughout our school.

Our House system encourages teamwork, cohesion, and leadership across the year groups and to reward pupils who engage in all aspects of school life. The main objective of the House System is to provide and support the following:

• To promote the school values throughout the school and in school competitions  
• To build on the school community, to give all students a sense of belonging immediately when they join The Charter School North Dulwich.  
• Providing pupils the opportunities of developing leadership skills and develop the importance of teamwork  

• To encourage student participation in a range of organised friendly competitions and events with pride.

The names of our houses are based on inspirational figures who have overcome adversity and broken-down barriers in life. There are six houses: King House (Red), Pankhurst House (Blue), Frank House (Green), Seacole House (Yellow), Turing House (Black) and Mandela House (White).  

Each pupil is allocated a House when they join the school. Each house has two-House Captains from each year group, which are selected at the start of each year. Throughout the year, the House Captains work alongside the House System Coordinator to run various events and competitions that the students can compete in. We believe this instructs the students about healthy competition as well as the correct way to win and lose. It also reinforces teamwork, rules and social skills and widens students’ engagement in school life.  

All competitions, whether academic, sporting, or cultural contribute house points which adds up to the house totals. Pupils may be awarded house points through showing responsibility, being kind, doing the right thing and showing perseverance. The school run several competitions thought-out the year for the pupils to get involved in. The competitions are Accelerated Reader, Art Competitions, Bake-off, Basketball, Football, World Book Day the Masked Reader, Talent Shows, to name a few! Competition between the Houses is fierce and always remarkably close and exciting.