School House Points - I'm going to sound like a nutter.

[bonzoed]

My children attend a school which has a house system and every half/end of term the winning house get to wear their team colours on the last day of that half of term. DC1 has noted that over the years, House 1 has won 50% of the time, House 2 25% and House 3 25%. House 4 has never won and my children are in House 4.

Surely the law of averages would mean that occasionally House 4 would get a sniff at winning but they always come 4th, often hundreds of points adrift whilst the other 3 are about 10 points apart from each other.

How can this be addressed without me coming across as a total nutter for caring about something so silly?

As an aside, their house colour is a colour they wouldn't usually wear so I bought them a top each in that colour for the occasion of a house win and they have both outgrown the tops. I am loathe to buy more...

[BlueChampagne]

Depending on the age of the children, could one of them not present it dressed up as some maths/statistics home-working?

[lljkk]

hahaha, you got caught out. (That sort of thing happens to me, too).
I think it would be quite reasonable for you to have a word, actually, about fairer distribution of rewards. I presume your DC didn't get a choice about which house they went into (no sorting hat? :) ).

[bonzoed]

What I might do is write an email to the Head saying that DC is under the impression that House 4 always come last but that I am sure that this isn't true so perhaps he could let me know me know when House 4 last won so that I can remind and reassure them.

Or would this sound nutty?

[sittinginthesun]

My dcs are in "House 4". In the 4 plus years they have been at the school, I think they have only won the weekly award twice.

I know that ds1's class has lots of very well behaved and motivated House 4s, so I can only assume it's the other years letting the side down. :)

[DeWe]

In all the schools I was at there always was one house that never won. Sometimes you had sporty houses, sometimes academic, sometimes allround, but there was always a weak house.

The only explanation I could find is that siblings tend to go into the same houses, and you can get ability in one area by a set of siblings, so sproter older group may equal sporty other group.

The houses were always randomly allocated so there was no deliberate act there.

[2cats2many]

DeWe I was just about to say the same thing. There was a rubbish house in my school too. I was in it and we never won anything!

[LegoWidow]

Is it Hufflepuff?

[PollyEthelEileen]

for brains, for games, and _ and are just silly names.

[AryaUnderfoot]

DS' school had a 'House 4' up until last year. It actually got flagged up by the school council that 'House 4' always came last.

Some digging around by the head of SC actually found that there were far fewer children in 'House 4' than other houses. A combination of siblings all going into the same houses and not accounting for families leaving the school meant that the numbers in each house were really out of balance.

The houses have now been completely re-organised, with everyone allocated new houses (with new names).

Now I have probably outed myself, I'd better name-change.

[StickEmWithThePointyEnd]

When I was at school we had red, blue, green and yellow "houses". Most of our house points were awarded for sporting events, and the yellow team won most often, followed by blue team, as most of the football, netball and cricket teams were in those houses. The only time the green team got a look in was if there was a big test or quiz (that was my team) and the red team were well and truly Hufflepuff.

[bubblesinthebath]

We had Mars, Neptune, Jupiter, Mercury. Mars always kicked ass in sports...and pretty much everything else. I was in Neptune and we always came last! BUT saying that we were persistant at most things because we had a pipe dream that we could beat Mars challenging yet devastating at the same time .

[AryaUnderfoot]

Ha ha, at least you were never trying to thrash Uranus at anything!

Oh, I'm such a teenager at times.

[Rowlers]

Still chortling at is it hufflepuff?

[Iamnotminterested]

Perfectly valid question, op. It also seems to be the case in my DD's secondary school that the golden children from her primary have taken their pedestals with them to high school and the lesser kids should just be damn well grateful to be in their presence. Cynical?

[ClayDavis]

We even sucked at the quiz. Art, music, gym, dance, 6 different sporting competitions, house quiz, number of house points we came 4th in all of them. The only thing we ever had more of than anything else was conduct marks for poor work/behaviour. I think Hufflepuff would have beaten us.

[ballstoit]

Do the points start again or just keep getting added to?

Just thinking if there's already a big gap, then it's not going to close is it?

You should be pleased really though...DS observes that the worse you behave, the more house points you get

[bubblesinthebath]

AyraUnderfoot True! True! Just spat my hot chocolate on the screen Thank you!

[FannyBazaar]

I'm thinking Uranus would be bottom every time .

[Merrylegs]

Ooh bubbles. I was a Neptune too. And yes, Mars usually won. Why is that?

[bubblesinthebath]

Merrylegs I believe Twas because all the academic/athletic peeps were in Mars either that or their solicitor/managing director/doctor parents were giving the school back handers . I loved it though made me wanna run that little bit faster on sports day ha ha.

[bonzoed]

Ok, have sent message to the Head. Arya's comment about a house in her school not having the same number of children in it spurred me on. I've basically said that DC seems to think that her house never win but that I am sure that this is not the case so would he let me know when House 4 last won so that I can reassure DCs.

I do feel ever so precious for sending the email. He's going to think I'm a nutter.

[Hassled]

He's not going to think you're a nutter - or at least if he does, you'll be low down in terms of the nuttiness he's encountered :o.

I think it's a valid question - and the siblings thing is probably relevant. I can think of one family I know with 4 incredibly talented sporty boys - they win everything (and they're nice and polite and good-looking too, the bastards) and if you had those 4 in a school house everyone else would be stuffed.

[bonzoed]

Ballstoit - I think the points are cumulative over the year, or at least over a whole term. Also, DC1 has observed that the special events/treats always go to the worst behaved boy in the class.