Last year, members of our Students Representative Council raised the question of whether we should consider changing the names of our sports house teams, as some students were unsure of the meaning or history behind them.
After some research, students discovered that the sports house teams were named after local men connected with the school community in the early to mid-1900s, and included chairmen of the School Committee (Mr Mellor and Mr Selth), a local MP (Mr Dunks) and a previous Principal (Mr Devonshire).
Classes discussed the current names and shared their ideas and reasons to keep or change the names of the sports house teams. Students engaged in a great deal of thoughtful discussion over many weeks, before voting for or against a change. Staff and parents were also able to vote to help guide a final decision.
In each group, the votes indicated a strong preference for change. A common reason given was to ensure we all connect to the names and their history. Respondents felt the names should reflect diversity and gender if named after people, or the local environment and culture.
In the next few weeks, we will begin the process of working with students to select new names for the sports house teams. We look forward to launching the new names at Sports Day in Term 4.