Students and Houses
The school currently has 860 pupils aged 11–18, of whom 111 are boarders. The school is split into 9 houses, 3 of which are for boarders and dayboys, 6 for day boys only. These are:
- School - 76 boys (36 dayboys, 41 boarders)
- Crescent - 81 boys (35 dayboys, 46 boarders)
- These two houses have all the middle school boarders (aged 13–16) and the majority of the sixth form boarders (aged 16–18).
- Boyd's - 82 boys
- O'Doherty's - 83 dayboys
- Franklin's - 81 dayboys
- Christodoulou's - 83 dayboys
- Southwell-Sander's - 84 dayboys
- Davies' (Situated on the same site as Waste Court) - 101 boys (77 dayboys, 25 boarders)
- This house has the remainder of the sixth form boarders.
- Webb's - 83 dayboys
Day boys from 11–13 belong to the Lower School which has 118 boys.
The day houses (with the exception of Lower School, School House, and Crescent House) take their names from their current Housemasters and are thus prone to change.
In the 20th century, the school owned another upper school boarding house, Larkhill, to the north of the Faringdon Road. Various smaller buildings have also been used for boarders at various times, with the pupils being part of one of the larger houses. The Bath Street house, Lacies Court (rare) and Glyndowr come into this category, see school map.
There are many Inter-House competitions at Abingdon, both sporting and academic. These include Cricket, Singing and Public Speaking. The competitions themselves are held every year, and each house has its traditional strengths. O'Doherty's (which holds the record of most 'tag-rugby' titles held at once, 4 of 5), School House and Crescent House, for example, are known to be particularly strong in the sports competitions, while Davies' (which holds the record of the most public speaking titles held at one time, 3 of 5, while it was known as Phelps'), Boyd's and Franklin's are better known for debating. There is also an annual inter-house singing competition, usually judged by a music department head from another school and by the Headmaster of Abingdon School.
Read more about this topic: Abingdon School
Famous quotes containing the words students and/or houses:
“We must continually remind students in the classroom that expression of different opinions and dissenting ideas affirms the intellectual process. We should forcefully explain that our role is not to teach them to think as we do but rather to teach them, by example, the importance of taking a stance that is rooted in rigorous engagement with the full range of ideas about a topic.”
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“He hung out of the window a long while looking up and down the street. The world’s second metropolis. In the brick houses and the dingy lamplight and the voices of a group of boys kidding and quarreling on the steps of a house opposite, in the regular firm tread of a policeman, he felt a marching like soldiers, like a sidewheeler going up the Hudson under the Palisades, like an election parade, through long streets towards something tall white full of colonnades and stately. Metropolis.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)