Starting in sixth grade, Cor Deo students participate in the House System.
What is a House System?
Historically associated with British boarding schools, our House system builds upon a rich tradition with an emphasis on enriching our students’ school experience. Each year, students in sixth grade, along with seventh through twelfth grade students new to Cor Deo, are carefully placed into one of our four Houses. They will be forged into a team overseen by invested faculty.
What is the Purpose of our House System?
The Cor Deo House system exists to preserve and enrich our school community with students reaching across lines of grades, classes, and interests in order to establish meaningful relationships that manifest encouragement, accountability, leadership, challenge, and joy.
The chief aim of our House system is to transform the culture of our Upper School (Logic and Rhetoric) by providing a Christ-centered community where Christian virtue is practiced and community relationships among students and with faculty are cultivated.
It is through the House system that our students take part in student leadership, mentorship of and by older students, healthy competition, service, outdoor adventure, where they experience true community with other Knights, and how students take ownership of their educational experience.
Cor Deo Houses
” . . . the inhabitants of that area led a literally sheltered life . . . enclosed between the Cascades just to the east and the Olympic Range across the Sound to the west. Even when fog, rain, or snow made the mountains invisible, we felt their mitigating presence. . . . It was like living in the hollow of the cupped hand of God.”
–Richard J. Williams, The Cascades
Cascade House
Colors: Navy and Sunset Orange
Mascot: Bear
House Basecamp (visited annually): Mt. Rainier National Park
Possible Junior Year Challenge Adventures: Wonderland Trail, Climb Mt. Baker, Rock Climbing in Old Cascades
Columbia House
Colors: Navy and Red
Mascot: Eagle
Basecamp (visited annually): Cape Disappointment
Possible Junior Year Challenge Adventures: Hiking, Windsurfing, Rafting Trip, Rock Climbing the Gorge
Olympic House
Colors: Navy and Kelly Green
Mascot: Mountain Lion
Basecamp (visited annually): Olympic National Park
Possible Junior Year Challenge Adventures: Camping at Second Beach, Conservation Efforts in Hoh Rainforest or Elwha River, Climbing Mt. Olympus
Salish House
Colors: Navy and Lake Blue
Mascot: Orca
Basecamp (visited annually): San Juan Islands
Possible Junior Year Challenge Adventures: Cycling & Sailing the San Juans, Boating Length of Salish Sea (Washington & B.C.)