Houses

All the PaRK IS community is organized into Houses: Hillary, Cousteau, Vasco da Gama and Armstrong. The House System promotes a sense of belonging across age groups and a degree of friendly competition between students. It provides opportunities for teachers and students to develop all aspects of their growth and learning: personality, morality, creativity, knowledge and skills. The activities promote values of fair play, teamwork, citizenship, mutual responsibility, self-discipline, initiative, perseverance and resilience. Participation in activities contributes to excellence in academic, social, sporting and cultural fields. Every house carries the name of one of the great explorers of human history. Each house represents a type of exploration (sea, mountain, deep ocean and space), each explorer comes from a different country. PaRK IS Houses are:

Edmund Hillary

The Hillary House is named after Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, a mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist.

After Hillary, this is a House that explores and cherishes three main traits:

- - A mind-set of resilience based on his mountaineer experiences.
  - A love of exploration and a curious approach to life based on his life as an explorer
  - A generous attitude towards others based on his life as a philanthropist.

Jacques Costeau

This House is named after Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a French Naval officer and explorer. Cousteau was a multidisciplinary innovator. As well as a researcher and explorer Cousteau was also interested in photography, film and writing.

This is a House that cherishes three main traits:

- - A love for creativity based on his ability to question the best practice to put forth his life’s research
  - Comfortable with broad interests, based on his multidisciplinary approach to life
  - Protection and teamwork based on his protection of the environment and nature.

Vasco da Gama

This House is named after Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by Sea. He designed the route connecting the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and therefore bridged a gap between the West and the Orient.

This is a House that cherishes three main traits:

- - Diplomatic, based on his feature of establishing connections between different cultures and ways of life.
  - Intuitive, based on his extraordinary capacity to do what so many others had failed to do before him.
  - Curiosity, based on his willingness to explore a new culture, people and habits.

Neil Armstrong

This House is named after Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to land on the moon. He was perseverant, hardworking and fearless.

This is a House that cherishes three main traits:

- - A love for knowledge based on his career as a University Professor
  - A desire for glory and great exploits, based on his extraordinary ambition to set foot on the moon for the first time.
  - A hardworking and exploratory attitude based on his intense training