The house system and the return of boarding to Jamaica College
THE HOUSES at Jamaica College are all named after prominent persons associated with the school. The house system originally started with two houses, Simms and Scotland, which accounted for most of the recorded inter-house rivalry at the school. While JC was a boarding school the house system flourished with these two houses, represented by the oldest buildings and dormitories on the campus and being the backbone of it. At the peak of the boarding era, JC had a school population numbering about seven hundred and was described as a boarding school with ‘day boys’. This description alludes to the fact that the day boys had to conform to the norms of boarding life, such as reporting for roll call according to house (Burke M., 2016).
Almost every aspect of boarding life was divided along house lines. There were house masters, and house captains, and, of course, you slept in your houses. There were inter- and intra-house rivalries for glory in both academic and sporting pursuits. Up to the mid1940s, there were no distinctions between boarders and day boys as it related to the house system, but this was later changed as the school population grew and more buildings were built. New houses were created for ‘day boys’ – Cowper and Drax houses, named after a former principal and the school’s founder, respectively – resulting in the number of houses at the school increasing to four in total (Levy, 2007). By the end of the boarding system at JC in 1967, which was arguably the peak of the house system, there were nine houses at JC – five senior houses and four junior houses. The senior houses were Cowper, DaCosta, Drax, Scotland and Simms. The junior houses were Chambers, Hardie,
Murray and Musgrave. These houses were further subdivided into houses for boarders and day-school boys.
Following the end of the boarding system in December 1967, there were only about twenty boarders in total in between Simms and Scotland, and they both disappeared from the house system. The boarders from both houses were merged into Sparks House, and they were all housed in the Simms building (Burke P. , 2016). The addition of Sparks saw the total number of houses at JC numbering ten, but with nine being the most active at any one time. In recent years, however, Simms house has returned at the expense of Sparks, which was then represented by the colour green. Scotland house, however, has never returned to the house system despite its legendary status in the school’s history and traditions.
In this new millennium, Jamaica College has opened a boarding facility known as The Mayer Matalon Dormitory. This premier boarding facility offers to students the best that education has to offer, building them in mind, body and spirit. Opened in July 2016, the facility has attracted students from urban, rural and international locations as they seek to take advantage of the opportunity to become wellrounded young men. Already, the boarding facility has started to bear fruits by producing some of the school’s top sportsmen, who are also top academic achievers – a parent’s dream come true. Some of the spirit and comradery that was lost when boarding ended at the institution has now returned and has bolstered the institution on its march to excellence.