School House names

[PrincessHairyMclary]

DDs school have announced the new houses children will be split into, all of them are historical British male explorers, including Drake who as a slave trader is inappropriate in my opinion.
Would I be unreasonable to complain and suggest some female representation?

I sympathise here and would see if you can get your DD and some of the other girls to raise it themselves. Even make it official with the letter/petition to the head teacher.

FWIW our school has totally un-gendered house names (they are all named after local landmarks) but this year they have decided that instead of having 1 male and 1 female house captain for each house, they will just have 2 house captains per house with no gender-bias. (Not really a big surprise as teachers aren’t even allowed to have the girls and boys line up in separate lines anymore )

End result? - 8 boys as house captains - 0 girls.

My DDs are furious but apparently the voting stands and according to the head this is the fairest way to do it.

I wrote an email complaint to the head and received a letter back today. Along the lines I raised a good point but they had been chosen through much deliberation and chosen by the school stuff (many of which were women) as historical characters who embodied characteristics for exploration and discovery that the school tries to instil in the children. Ignoring of course Drake the slave trader. Basically the staff chose the four names they had heard of. However, I had brought up an important point which will be used in class discussions when t children research their 'House' namesake.

DD says she came to see her in class today and told her that they had chosen men as not many women were explorers at the time. bangs head on brick wall

It's not worth setting up a petition, it's very unlikely any of the other parents or children would care.

I love the fact that my DS's school doesn't have houses. My junior school used Catholic martyrs too Bellini, I was Clitherow.

Just off the top of my head (no googling, I promise):
Gertrude Bell
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Aphra Behn (maybe not an explorer, but certainly a government spy)
Mary Bird
Susannah Someonerother in Canada
Anna Jameson