How to choose house names and colours

House names and colours are the first things pupils see of a house system. They appear on kit, banners and the points table, and they stay for years. Here is how five primary schools in England chose theirs, and what to decide for your own.

All five schools have four houses. Your number of houses may be different, so adapt the ideas.

Decide who chooses the names

The schools handle this in different ways.

A school council vote. At Walgrave Primary, the children chose the names through the school council and a democratic vote. At St John's in Warminster, the school council also chose the house names.
A children's vote. At Abbeymead Primary, the children voted to name the houses, many years ago.
A return to the original names. In 2021, Gayton Primary decided to return to its original house names.

Involving pupils gives the names a story the school can tell. If you don't involve them, make sure the names mean something to the school.

Choose a theme with meaning

All five schools tied the names to something local or admired.

Walgrave: historic halls and houses in the local area. The houses are Cottesbrooke, Holdenby, Kelmarsh and Lamport.
St John's: people the children admire. The names are not listed on the page.
Birkbeck: local rivers. The houses are Shuttle, Cray, Darent and Thames.
Abbeymead: planes and engines built in Gloucester. The houses are Merlin, Pioneer, Meteor and Buccaneer.
Gayton: areas of interest in the local area. The houses are Hall, Farm, Ferry and Mill.

Details for Birkbeck are on its house page. A local theme gives pupils something to learn about, and it is easy to explain to families. If your area has no obvious theme, a person or value the pupils admire works too, as at St John's.

Choose colours that are easy to tell apart

Each of these schools gives every house one colour.

Walgrave: red, green, blue and orange
Birkbeck: red, green, yellow and blue
Abbeymead: green, yellow, red and navy blue
Gayton: green, yellow, red and blue
St John's: yellow, red, green and blue

Red, green, yellow and blue are the most common choices. Pick colours that are clearly different from each other, including for pupils who find some colours hard to tell apart, and check they are available on the kit your suppliers can print.

Plan for kit

Colours get used every week. Birkbeck pupils wear a house colour t-shirt during PE, and at Abbeymead all children are required to wear a t-shirt in their house colour. At St John's, children wear their house colours as part of their PE kit. Decide early whether families buy house kit or the school supplies it.

Decide how pupils join a house

At Gayton, children are placed in a house when they start.
At St John's, children are allocated to a house when they join.
At Walgrave and Birkbeck, siblings are in the same house.

Keeping siblings together is a common choice, and it helps families follow one house. Write down your rule so that late joiners are placed the same way.

Name your leaders

At St John's, each house has two captains from Year 5 or Year 6, who are voted for by the children in their house. The house captain guide shows how other schools choose and support captains.

Keep the system running

Names and colours are only the start. The points that make the houses compete need clear rules, so read the house points rules guide, and see the inter-house competition guide for the year ahead. If you are setting up a house system from scratch, the house system setup plan puts these decisions in order.