Maple House

 

Willow is one of four houses at The Duston School that provide a community for every student, from Reception right through to the Sixth Form. Throughout the academic year, these four houses compete for the coveted house trophy by earning house points for a wide variety of achievements.

 Maple Motto

Our motto is, "Don't wait for opportunity; create it". In Maple, we focus on proactively looking for opportunities to succeed in life, actively pursuing them and challenging ourselves to step outside of our comfort zone.

How do we create a sense of community?

Maple students have a strong sense of identity fomented by our weekly bulletin, our regular house events and competitions, our house point system and our termly celebration assemblies. Tutors groups receive weekly visit from Sixth Form Maple Captains and Head of House. These provide a fantastic opportunity to celebrate each other’s successes and reflect on progress.

 

How do we celebrate our success?

The Marvellous Maple award is awarded termly to one outstanding student in each form, who best represents school values and contributes to the community, irrespective of academic achievement.

House points are awarded for respect, resilience and aspiration, alongside being ‘star of the lesson’ and ‘tutee of the week’. In addition to this, many students earn house points for their contribution to the wider school community via extra-curricular activities. The prestigious House trophy is awarded to the winning house each term.

House points build up to Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Awards, for which students receive a personalised certificate and an Amazon voucher to spend as they please.

We look forward to welcoming new students to Maple House!

 

How else do we create a sense of community?

Next year the Houses will unite to choose mutual charity to support in our numerous fundraising efforts which happen across the course of the year.

To add to the community spirit, inter-house competitions run every second Thursday after school. The four houses compete through quizzes, debates, sporting challenges and creative activities, so there is something for everyone throughout the term. We are always looking to add different events on so if there’s something you’d like to see please let a member of the House Voice team know.

We also have the Maple Leaf of Kindness, an initiative which encourages pupils to carry out 7 Random Acts of Kindness within the space of a week to engage further with their community both in school and at home.

Maple House Voice

Our House Voice Team consists of pupils from all four houses. Meetings are chaired by our Sixth Form House Captain and Vice House Captain, and take place every fortnight. This is the forum for students to discuss issues or ideas about their school. Each term our Sixth Form House Captain and Vice House Captain will have a meeting with Mr Strickland to ensure that their voices are heard.