right well...
its because they think that we can help each other throughout the school better if we know people from the whole school rather than just your year...
you still get to socialise with your friends, just not at form time...and thats only going to be 20 minutes every day out of a whole of 7 hours...its not much ... so its not really splitting up and in the long term you get to know a whole loada new people who can help you as you get older and stuff... xD
A perfect answer from Amber - well done!
Mr Bodey
The question remains: will students be willing to help others (especially as many shifted into a defensive/cynical mode on learning about the new system)?
Also, the responsibility of helping others with work and decisions could be daunting...perhaps.
Daunting perhaps - but a hugely positive skill to learn and to have. Helping others happens far more naturally than you may think - you won't be giving students delicate advice without support or be responsible for them getting their Level 6 in Maths. The help you will offer will be through the knowledge and experiences you have built up from within school and outside it - it may be that this helps a younger (or older!) student organise themselves better through seeing how you do it, it may be telling a student what GCSE Geography is like, it may be reassuring a younger student about what the swimming lessons are like and offering them encouragement. The power of a conversation with another interested person is immediate.
Will students be willing to help each other? Of course - this is an excellent school with outstanding students who already look to help and support each other and this is a strength we can build on in our House structure. In terms of any cynicism or defensiveness, we will continue to reassure students through visits to and from other schools - from what we have seen elsewhere this quickly eases once the system is in place and people see the opportunities and strength it offers.