A Year Examining House Culture and Residential Curriculum

This year as I’ve grappled with house culture and how to effectively maintain a strong house culture with changing students I’ve asked many questions of many constituent groups. From former residential staff to current staff to students I’ve examined what it means to have house pride and culture.

My journey led me to my HMW question: “How might we develop a strong house culture when the students are changing year to year?”

Years ago, the majority of students entered Boarding School in Grade 9 (or younger) and continued through for 4-5 years graduating having learned about themselves, took on leadership roles in the residence and passed along house norms and cultural expectations to their peers.

With so many factors at play for our students and families, many choose Boarding school for the senior years only.

With a changing model and increased Day Student integration into residences, we are at a critical time for change and for strengthening an already phenomenal boarding program.

Throughout the process, I have learned that students see House Culture differently than Staff. That they base it on how they ‘feel’ in the house and not on the deliberate work the residential staff is doing to set value systems, identifying house norms, etc.

When asked, students responded that house culture comes from “house snack, house events and the students who make the house feel either comfortable or tense.” Staff, on the other hand, responded that House Culture is “House culture is the ‘family values’ set that a house lives by as individuals and a collective. It is made up of the leaders of the house, the students involved (grade, international makeup, etc.) and the architecture itself also plays a role in the dynamic of establishing a house culture (ie. singles, triples, grades, separation, shared bathrooms, vs. private, etc.).”

Written Residential Curriculum That Goes Beyond Rules

This year, with the support of my colleagues, my direct report and co-Director of Residences we launched a written Residential Curriculum that is based in Lakefield’s values and teaches life skills, communication skills, environmental awareness, and ties directly to our morning Chapel program. Each student gets a handbook with resources, reflections, and activities facilitated by the residential staff. A chance to reflect, learn together and strength house and school values as a house family.

During this first year of delivering a standardized written Residential Curriculum, we found many advantages and like with all new things, pain points and pivots necessary for next year and learning from the experience.  Some key findings from the surveys.

Residential Staff, for the most part, felt the preparation material was the right amount:

Whereas they felt the handbooks were not used effectively by the students:

The timing of the Residential Curriculum and when it should be delivered is something that is not consistent across staff.

Staff indicated the following areas for improvement:

Students had mixed reviews on the use of the handbook as part of the Residential Curriculum:

Students showed they liked the Sunday Evening time slot a lot more than the staff did!

Students indicated the following as areas for improvement:

My hope is to collect some more feedback as both survey groups did not generate the numbers I was hoping for. That said very interesting similarities and differences that will help to inform our Residential Curriculum as we move forward. Of note, only one student said it shouldn’t be a thing at all – taking that has a big win!

Design Thinking Based Retreat on The House Model

Using the ‘placemats’ styled design thinking we use in Cohort21 I created the templates for brainstorming, thinking, reflection, and conversation during our Head of House Retreat. It was a day of thoughtful and meaningful work to think about how we will implement our strategic thinking and plans. Each participant had a voice in three key areas and it brought forward so many fantastic ideas. A powerful experience for everyone involved.

While this was my first try at leading design thinking and using it for a Head of House retreat I would love to get more training and expertise in this area to develop my facilitation skills.

Student, Staff and Alumni Participation

As we move forward we will incorporate students, staff, and alumni into the feedback and creation of some house identifiers to further strengthen our boarding houses as the center of their Lakefield experience. From Day Student Integration to Staff Integration each member of the ‘House Family’ will have input into creating a variety of pieces (i.e. House Crest, House Colors, Cheer, etc.)

Cohort21 Slide Deck

The journey is far from over and I am excited to take my learnings from this past year and apply them to residence life. With a strong foundation, there are so many exciting possibilities.