A fuller HOUSE these DAYS at Belknap Intermediate

Mar. 1—Who knew Harry Potter stories could become real life? For Autumn Wells, a 5th grader at Emmet Belknap Intermediate School, this past year has not involved flying broomsticks or wands, but it has been exciting because of a new program named "House Days."

Taking a cue from the Wizarding World, Assistant Principal Julie Schiavone introduced House Days at the school. Today, the entire student body and all adults, right down to the maintenance staffers, are each attached to a certain "house" in the same spirit as J.K. Rowling's Griffons and Hufflepuffs in the popular Harry Potter book series.

Schiavone said she modeled Belknap's program off the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, including the names of the eight houses and the awarding of "house points" to students meeting expectations.

"If you're a teacher and you see someone being friendly, you can give them a house point," Schiavone said, and explained that once a house fills up a container with their points — small pom-poms — their banner is displayed on the school's digital sign.

Schiavone belongs to the house of Onraka whose motto is "Unity."

The thought behind House Days was that a building-wide program could encourage camaraderie across the school and also boost attendance.

And it did.

"Half days attendance was getting to be 75% to 80%. That's really bad. It's usually just below 91%," Schiavone said. "Since House Days has been introduced, it's 10% higher, 89% to 90%, which is huge, and everyday attendance is 95%."

She can't correlate the data, but Schiavone thinks House Days has kept students interested enough to get out of bed on a half day and trudge to their bus stop.

Autumn Wells and sixth-grader Kavon Smith admit they were a bit uncomfortable with House Days initially.

"I was confused why they did it at first," Autumn said. "But then I got to love it."

Autumn and Kavon both said they loved the smoothie contest held on a recent House Day, for which each house gathered healthy foods to turn into smoothies.

"Each house made smoothies with their ingredients, and then made smoothies for everyone," Assistant Principal Shawn Murray said.

Kavon noted that one of the houses used spinach in their smoothie. That didn't go over well, he said.

Another aspect of House Days is a community service project that each house has to complete.

Schiavone said, "One house gave blankets for dogs at the local SPCA. Another collected bottles and cans and used the money to purchase trees and plant those trees on the school grounds."

House Days usually occur on half-days, but in months without one some time is carved out for students to meet with their house. Some things they do together include practicing unique cheers, attending presentations on safety and, as state tests draw near, playing games involving math.

"The most meaningful thing is the service project," Kavon Smith said. "Because my mindset is that giving people what they need makes me feel good, because I can help someone less fortunate."