All about the house system

This week sees more house assemblies as house leaders either congratulate their houses or tell them to hurry up and beat the current leaders. Since the system's appearance last year, we've wondered why and wondered exactly what it means for Temple Moor.

Already we have forms, so the house system wasn't implemented to group students together. What it does do, though, is provide easier competition throughout the school by a simple segmenting into quarters - never mind the eight forms and seven years, this method gives competitions an extra incentive and a simpler breakdown.

But what of the names? Clearly TMHS ditched the old house names - Manston, Scargill, Dunstan and DeLacy - for science-themed ones, because of the Science College status. The current houses - as you're no doubt aware - are Rigel, Capella, Sirius and Vega. Alright, so they're all named after stars - but why these ones? They are not the brightest stars in the sky (barring the Sun, Sirius is the brightest, followed by Canopus then Arcturus) and they're definitely not the closest (Alpha Centauri is a bit of a silly house name, though). So why these four random stars, two of which are technically binary systems*?

The colours are (according to Wikipedia) the same four as used in the old house system. However, this was botched this year by ties that are different shades of the colours - mostly looking hideous.

There's not a lot more to say about the house system - except last year's winners were Sirius. It's not another horrendous scheme, thank God, and it actually seems to be a good idea for competition, if nothing else. Let's hear what some students think:

• "I don't think it really makes a difference to be honest"
• "It's sh*t...we were fine before. If it's not broke. Don't fix it"
• "hasn't really made any form of impact"
• "Completly Rediculous And Pointless"
• "pointless"

If you disagree with this post, or think those pupils' quotes are wrong, leave a comment or email us.

*Binary systems have two stars in them. For example, there's Capella A and Capella B. Sirius appears to be one star, but is actually two - imaginatively called Sirius A and Sirius B.

New tie colours

At the beginning of last year, the school ditched the old diagonally-striped ties in favour of four different ties: one for each of the houses. Silver/grey, yellow, red and purple were the chosen colours - and they botched even that because Sirius house's "house colour" is white not silver, nor grey. But it seems like the school have decided that the original colours weren't so good and have replaced them.

The Capella tie has gone from being bright yellow to a duller yellow or 'gold'. And while the appeal of gold may be strong at first, some Templars have taken a great dislike to it. One called it "mustard" and "green", probably not the look the school was aiming for. And while some pupils who have been moved into new forms will have to wear these new ties and stick out, all new Year 7 Templars in Capella will have to stick with these new ties. We think the colour is this colour.

We've also heard rumours that there are red ties which actually look pink and the purple ties have "turned some awful indigo kinda colour", according to one source. If you've got an opinion or more information on the new tie colours, add a comment. Anything else tie-related can be sent to the email address in the sidebar.