Although there is often a large amount of school spirit during the week of homecoming spirit days, the homecoming football game, and the dance, the Upper School often lacks school spirit the rest of the days in the school year. The SIAC team wants to change that this coming year with the new point system.
Current ninth graders will remember the house system from middle school. Faculty and middle school administrators attempted to create a version of the Hogwarts house system from Harry Potter. “The whole middle school was sorted into four groups and we completed activities together,” said Stella Wyatt ‘27, “I thought it was a good idea in theory, but because of the lower engagement from the students and just the execution, it felt more teacher-idea based instead of student-based.” The point system will encourage school spirit within the Upper School, along with rewarding grades that show the most spirit.
“I hope [the points system will incentivise school spirit] and we are trying to come up with prizes for these points,” said SIAC member Eloise Walsh ‘24. Walsh said that the prizes are meant to incentivize students to get into the challenges more, and to “up” school spirit.
During homecoming week Oct. 2-6, students showed their school spirit with the themes, Barbie vs. Oppenheimer, Western vs. West Coast, Greek Life, Jersey Day, and Neon. She hopes next year’s SIAC members will build off what has already been done this year.
In the future, Walsh hopes to continue the school spirit throughout the year: “In past years we have kind of lacked in that area, or it was only for specific days, we want to keep it consistent throughout the school year…I think that if Blake actually pushes through and finds the fun in this, I think it would be really useful in spirit and community building.” SIAC is hoping to continue smaller surprise competitions and spirit contests throughout the school year.
SIAC member Kiana Poul ‘24 thought spirit week went well, and the game “brought a lot of excitement.” She thought the turnout was good, and a lot of people showed up. She also liked the dance being inside because of the temperature and how there was enough space. Something she did not think went well was how water ran out at the dance and said “every year this is a problem.” Some things she would change for next year would be to have more water, and have more variety of music, noticing that some songs were getting replayed.
She thought having more activities included to do off to the side would be a good option for people who don’t really enjoy moshing. She said “it’s hard because you are either moshing or standing off to the side.”
When asked about any more dances for the rest of the year, she mentioned that SIAC is discussing a potential winter dance or activity, but SIAC is not sure about the logistics yet. She also mentioned last year’s neon dance saying maybe doing something like that, but a little more formal, also saying it could possibly be similar to homecoming.
