House System

Each academic year students in all years compete for the House Cup.

The House system at QE was reborn in 2008 with the help of a team of sixth formers. The sixth form now play a major role in the running of the competition. Each house has two Heads of House and a team of five House form reps, all volunteers from the year 13. The Heads of House organise events, hold assemblies, mange the team as well as collate data to award points. The House form reps are all allocated a form in the school to visit each morning and to mentor/support pupils during form time. The whole system is overseen by the House system Co-ordinator, Miss Mitchell.

The five Houses are Q, E, G, S and F. Each house is represented by a colour as well as a patron. The patrons are linked to the house traditionally and all are historical figures/families linked to Faversham and QE. Below is more detail:

Q house are blue and their patron name is Cole. John Cole was brought up at Ewell farm and in 1488 went to study at Oxford University. After the death of his father in 1510, he inherited the farm and in 1521 he obtained a licence from Henry VIII to dedicate some of his lands to provide for the endowment of a Grammar school. Thus in 1526 the first Faversham Grammar School was opened.

E house are red and their patron is Johnson. Sir Samuel Johnson: Victorian Mayor. Samuel George Johnson, born near Maidstone in 1832, became a solicitor in 1854 and set up in practice in Faversham, at 12 West Street. A Whig, he was elected to the Faversham town council the next year and, at only 27, became mayor in 1859, serving for two successive years. He was town clerk from 1864 until his 1870 appointment to the same post in Nottingham. He held that job till 1908. He was knighted for his services to the community in 1893. He died in Nottingham in 1910.

G house are green and their patron name is Gibbs. Richard Gibbs was a merchant in the China tea trade who, in 1883, endowed a Grammar school for girls in Faversham and named it the William Gibbs School, in memory of his father who had taken an active interest in education in the town. In 1967 the William Gibbs School amalgamated with Faversham Grammar School to become Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School.

S house are yellow and their patron name is Wreight. Henry Wreight was the Mayor of Faversham on three separate occasions in the early 19th century and when he died in 1840 he left a very substantial legacy in trust to the town. In 1856 some of that legacy was used to establish a commercial school, named the Henry Wreight School in his memory. In 1922 that school amalgamated with Faversham Grammar School to become Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School.

F House are sky blue and their patron name is Fowlds after Hilda Fowlds, an early victim of terrorism. Hilda Fowlds was headmistress of the former William Gibbs School for Girls, appointed in 1921, aged just 30. She was killed in 1931, aged 40, while on holiday in Hungary studying its folk songs. Hungary was suffering economic and political turmoil and the train on which she was travelling was blown up on a viaduct by a terrorist bomb, with its coaches falling 100ft, killing 30 people.   

Students can earn points for their House in many ways, there are a number of House events run through the year such as Interhouse staff/student tennis doubles, 5 a side staff football, quizzes, Maths challenges, table tennis tournaments, chess tournaments, etc. Points can be awarded for external achievements too, such as horse riding events, music awards, etc. Each student also earns points for their house each term from:

• Attendance,
• Interim assessment grades,
• Wearing the school uniform correctly,
• Merits (years 7 and 8),
• Interhouse sports events (including swimming gala and sports day)

At the end of each academic year the winning house receives the House Cup and the whole of the House win a prize.