January 28, 2025 | Everything Has Meaning
Shaping Culture with the House System

Many of our strongest and most formative memories from high school are forged not in the classroom but in the hallways, gyms, and auditoriums. We remember the events that shaped the school calendar: the pageantry of sports games, the thrill of a dance or formal dinner. We remember our friends and peers, and whether our school made us feel welcome or excluded. These experiences deeply define our sense of self.
At PCS, we give these cultural experiences an intentionally welcoming and purposeful home in our House System. The ‘24-’25 school year brought the formal launch of four PCS Houses: The House of St. Augustine, the House of King Alfred, the House of Octavius Catto, and the House of Corrie Ten Boom. These houses provide avenues for leadership, friendship, community, and collaboration across grades and friend groups. Each House was established with its own rituals and symbols. Initiates of the House of King Alfred pull Alfred’s sword from its sheath. Another house chants: “Ten Hut? Ten Boom!”
At PCS, our four Houses are competing this year to have their names engraved on the inaugural House Cup, a trophy to be unveiled next semester that will record each successive generation of PCS competitors. Student competitions have run the gamut from drama to farce: one week involved decoding messages using the Fibonacci Sequence, while the next had students racing yams with spoons. Catto won the Mathletics Challenge. Augustine conquered the cabbage-eating contest.
But the House System is about more than competition. Our houses are also becoming hubs for mutual support and service. House leaders head up student prayer groups and mentor incoming students as they learn the ropes at PCS. Each house also ran a “Ministerium” for our K-2 classes, leading a literature-based class activity for young students during the Christmas season. During our Christmas Banquet, students processed into the ballroom and began their first formal dance in house pairings. At the Banquet, each of our alumni joined a house as “founding” members, pointing to a future where graduates remember their Houses as a pivotal part of their growth and community at our school.
In a tense finale to the Volleyball Tournament, our entire Upper School sweated and cheered through a nail-biting final set. Then, they all celebrated each other, passed out high fives, and went home recapping every heroic dig and wild shot. The House System at PCS has encouraged our students to “stir each other up to love and good works,” as the writer of Hebrews puts it. In this way, it has been a clear cultural extension of our mission as a whole: to raise men and women who love the Lord their God with all of their heart, their soul, their mind, and their strength.