House Structure
Student Houses constitute a major structural and pastoral role within the life of St Andrew's. Each student is a member of one of eight Houses which constitute the primary group for sporting and cultural activities as well as providing a student focus for pastoral care and student welfare programmes.
The House system was introduced in 1953 by the then Headmaster, Canon MC Newth, when the School established three Houses - Canterbury (red), Salisbury (green) and York (blue). Students competed in their Houses to win the coveted Dean Pitt Shield named after the Very Reverend Eric A Pitt, the fourth Dean of the Cathedral, who was appointed in 1953.
Since 1953 the Dean Pitt Shield has been awarded to the House whose students gain the most points for participating and excelling in a range of sporting and ancillary School activities during the year.
Based on the School's progressively increasing enrolments, in 1963 Westminster and St Paul's Houses were introduced while Winchester House was instigated in 1977. Increased enrolments and the desire to undertake House-based pastoral care programmes, led to the inauguration of Hereford and Durham Houses in 1996 making eight Houses, each comprising about 100 secondary students from Years 7 to 12. Each Junior School student is a member of one of these eight Houses.
In deference to the School's long standing links with the Choir Schools Association in the UK, and in recognition of the School's cathedral traditions, each House is named after a famous English cathedral. It is no coincidence that each English cathedral operates an affiliated chorister school that functions on broadly similar lines to St Andrew's Cathedral School.
