Houses

Upon becoming Year 6 students, students are enrolled in one of the four houses: **Beethoven**, **Handel**, **Mozart and Tchaikovsky**. Every year the four Houses compete in several competitions to see which House is the best. That house will win the Lau Siu Ling Cup. The students of each house are required to wear their house T-shirt during House competitions.

## Current House Standings

Last updated: 9/6/2023
 Mozart
 Handel
 Tchaikovsky

## 2019–2020

The 2019–2020 season ended with Beethoven above Handel by 9 points, with 25 points, winning 4 of the 6 played events, while Tchaikovsky is behind Handel by 1 point and Mozart last, 5 points adrift. However, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, most of the events like Sports Day, CKY Idol, and Swimming Gala were canceled, so after some consideration, it was decided that the whole competition will be voided, with no champions given out. However, the leaders Beethoven would go into the 2020–2021 season with 3 extra points, Handel with 2, and Tchaikovsky with 1, to compensate for their previous position.

## 2020–2021

The 2020–2021 season started late, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the suspension of classes. The first house meetings were held on 16th October 2020, which also signals the start of the house competition. A notable difference in the events for the 2020–2021 season and others is that the schedule of events are changed drastically, and a lot of events are now held online, such as the first two events, online International Chess, and Online CKY Idol. It has been announced that a new house cup will be awarded for the 2020–2021 School Year. Tchaikovsky won this year's house cup, with Beethoven second, Mozart third and Handel last.

## 2021-2022

The 2021-2022 season was also started late, with the first event being House Shout during 2021 Christmas party. Sports day and its respective events were announced to be cancelled on 2021-12-16, but a new Chinese competition was added. Chinese quiz and Chinese House Shout. It is where each house has to prepare a performance to honor a poet and its poems. Mozart skyrocketed from second to first place for winning 1st for both chinese competition leading them to win this year's house cup.

## 2022-2023

In this academic year, many acitivties resumed, for example Sports Day. Mozart got the first place for Sports day. Including winning champion for A & C grade, cheerleading champion and overall champion. Winning 4/5 of the awards. However, Beethoven took over Mozart in the swimming gala winning the champion in the event. And eventually winning CKY Idol, making Beethoven win the house cup this year.

## History

The 2021-2022 school year is the 13th year of house competition. Tchaikovsky is the defending champions and the leaders in the competition, with 4 wins. Beethoven is in second with 4 wins, Handel is in third with 3 wins, while Mozart is at the last with 1 win.

## Houses

### Beethoven

Beethoven is the house with the most cups won. Their House colour is **green**and their House animal is an **eagle**. Their Chinese letter is 誠, which means **integrity**and **honesty**. Beethoven got 61 points in the 2018-2019 and won the competition, 2 points above Mozart and 3 points above Handel.

### Handel

Handel is a 3-time champion and once-dominant force in the competition. Their House colour is **blue** and their House animal is the **wolf**. Their Chinese letter is 勤, which means **hard-working**. They have been known to "drop off" in recent years, due to them being very behind in house points. In the 2018-2019 academic year was an improvement and Handel got third place, with 58 points, just a point behind Mozart, with the second place. In August 2022, a new livery is introduced.

### Mozart

    Mozart is a house that is consistently a dominant force during the competitions. The colour that represents them is **red.** Their House animal is the **phoenix**, which is a mythical creature that conveys the meaning of **fierce**, **immortality** and **eternal fire.** Their chinese letter is 愛, which means **love**. Mozart is well known for performance based competitions like cheerleading and house shouts, but not winning the house cup before the academic year 2021-2022. During this academic year, Mozart was the overall champion with multiple first place wins across the school year.

### **Tchaikovsky**

Tchaikovsky is the 3-time champions and has the record of the largest point tally (83) in a single school year. Their House color is **yellow**and their House animal is the **lion**. Their Chinese letter is 敬, which means **respect.** Tchaikovsky was a dominant force in recent years, winning in consecutive years 2016 to 2018, with 2017-18 being the highlight because of their high points tally. In the academic year 2018-2019, Tchaikovsky finished in the last place, with only 53 points.

## Events

Houses take place in multiple events throughout the year.

* Dodgeball (Junior, Senior)
* International and Chinese Chess
* Junior and Senior Quiz
* Junior and Senior Frisbee
* December House Shout
* Sports day: A Grade, B Grade, C Grade, Participation
* Cheerleading (double points)
* BP Debate
* Chinese Debate
* CKY Idol Solo and Group
* Swimming Gala (double points)
* Chinese Quiz
* Chinese House Shout
* Chinese Calligraphy

Every single win in a competition is worth **5** points, second place is **3** points, third and last place is **2** and **1**point respectively. Double point competitions (cheerleading at Sports Days and the Swimming Gala) are worth 10, 6, 4, and 2 points (but the double point system isn’t applied to the 2022-2023 academic year).

## House Roles

Each house has a teacher designated as 'Head of House', 'Deputy Head of House', and for students, 2 House Captains, 3 Deputy House Captains, 2–3 year level co-ordinators for each year (14–20 in total), and an optional amount of officers and teams.

### Beethoven

Head of House: Mr. Hugh Chan

Deputy Head of House: Mr. Connor Callaghan

### Handel

Head of House: Dr. Andy Cheung

Deputy Head of House: Ms. Keenu Gill

### Mozart

Head of House: Mr. Steve Chan

Deputy Head of House: Ms. Cherry Cheng

### Tchaikovsky

Head of House: Ms. Femke van der Heijden

Deputy Head of House: Mr. Jason Davidson

## "Housist"

Housist is a created term to mean the discrimination of another house. Students constantly say bad things about opposition houses and make fun of them. This is an example of "being housist" and these students will not be tolerated. All Houses are trying to eradicate such housism.

Efforts have been made by houses to decrease housism, with houses encouraging good sportsmanship during meetings.

## Old House Names

Before "Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Handel", old house names were used. Only two old house names are known currently, obtained from research and analysis of yearbooks and related content. Beethoven was named as the "Kraken House", and Mozart as the "Phoenix House".

## Loss of the Lau Siu Ling Cup

After Beethoven's 2018–19 academic year win, they have been rumored to have lost the Lau Siu Ling Cup, which was awarded to them last year. A replacement cup (WSC Cup) was put in place in the first house meeting of 2019–2020 and 2020–21 and Beethoven has formally submitted a request to have a new house cup. The new house cup was used for the 2020–21 academic year.

## House Meetings

*For a more detailed article, see the article about the House Meetings.*

On the first Friday of each month, house meetings are held and students and teachers of each house go to their respective locations to listen to a presentation by the Head of House and possibly the house leaders. The different locations of the house meetings are the Auditorium, the Lecture Theatre, the Activity Room, and the Indoor Gym. The locations cycle for every house every year. However, after the pandemic, these locations started rotating every meeting, and house meetings have been held in the Canteen instead of the Activity Room.

## Official House Instagram Pages

* Beethoven
* Handel
* Mozart
* Tchaikovsky