School

Unlike the other houses, School House is not named after a distinguished ON or Head. It owes its name to its origins as a boarding house. In nineteenth-century schools, it was normal practice to call the boarding house ‘the school house’ (of which the Head was also the Head of House). The last Head of Norwich School to function as Head of School House was Andrew Stephenson in the 1950s. The House then continued as the boarding house, based in School House and in the Palace, until 1989, when boarding was phased out.

As boarders could spend unlimited time practising for the House Shout, results were invariably a marvel of synchronised close harmony, and their competitive spirit lives on today.