The House System & Form Groups
Driffield School has six Houses, which each contain 10 Form Groups. Students are mixed together in Form Groups in what is called a “vertical” system. This means that each Form Group is made up of students from Years 7 to 11, usually five or six from each year. They meet together every morning for registration and they also have a number of tutor periods throughout the year where their Form Tutor will give them individual attention and support.
Mixing the year groups together in Form Groups helps to foster a sense of community and encourages the older students to support the younger ones.
The Houses are managed by the Head of House (who is a teacher) and a House Tutor (a member of the support staff). The role of the House Tutor is to support the pastoral needs of each student in their Houses. They have no teaching commitments and are therefore available during the day to work with students and be a point of contact for any parent who has a concern about their child.
Each House is named after an inspiring individual who has a Yorkshire connection.
Bronte House
This House was named after the Bronte family whose three daughters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne were very famous writers in the nineteenth century. Charlotte is probably the best known for her novel called ‘Jane Eyre’. The family, which also included a brother called Bramwell, was very talented.
Fawcett House
Benjamin Fawcett was born in Bridlington. He moved to Driffield in 1831 when he set up a printing business in Middle Street. He was a very talented illustrator who produced high quality books on flowers, birds, freshwater fish and plants. His illustrations are still very highly respected even now, more than a hundred years after his death.
Holtby House
Winifred Holtby lived in Rudston, between Driffield and Bridlington, in the nineteenth century. A respected novelist her most famous book was ‘South Riding’, set in an imaginary part of Yorkshire. Some years ago it was turned into a television serial and filmed locally, much of it in Bridlington. She died at the height of her achievement at the tragically young age of 37. On her grave in Rudston churchyard it says, “God give me work till my life shall end, and life till my work be done.”
Johnson House
In May 1930, Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. It took her nearly twenty days and made her famous throughout the world. In 1936 she was invited to officially open Sewerby Hall, near Bridlington, to the public and over 10,000 came to see her perform the ceremony. She died in an air crash in 1941 but Sewerby Hall now has a museum of over five hundred items which belonged to her – many of them given to the museum by her father in 1958. This collection, dedicated to Britain’s most famous female aviator is a very popular attraction.
Mortimer House
John Mortimer was born in Fimber in 1825 and with his brother Robert is best known for his work on local archaeology. He owned a corn business in Fimber but moved to Driffield in 1869 to buildings at Riverhead where he expanded his trade in seed, corn and fertilizer. In 1878 he built a museum in Lockwood Street where he displayed many archaeological artefacts on tables, shelves and in glass cases and admission was free. In 1905 he published a book on his researches into British and Saxon burial mounds in East Yorkshire. He died in 1911 and Driffield Town Council had the opportunity to buy his collection for £1000. They refused and the collection was bought privately and given to Hull Museums. Much of it was destroyed in the bombing of Hull in World War II but some of the exhibits survived and remain in Hull museums to this day clearly marked with Mortimer’s name.
Wilberforce House
William Wilberforce was born in Hull in 1759. He lived there until he was nine when he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Wimbledon. However he returned to Yorkshire as a boarder at Pocklington School. After Cambridge University he became the MP for Hull giving up this seat four years later to become MP for Yorkshire. From 1787 he worked tirelessly to abolish the slave trade but was voted against by other MP’s for year after year. Finally, in 1807, he was successful and the trade was abolished by parliament. He eventually gave up his Yorkshire seat for one in Sussex and made his last public appearance in Maidstone in April 1833 where he spoke against slavery. By this time he was very ill and unable to walk. In July he heard that the bill to abolish slavery in the British Colonies had passed its second reading in the House of Commons. His life’s work nearly complete, William Wilberforce died three days later.
