School houses back in the Dark Ages

We have been watching further series of The Last Kingdom on Netflix (see this earlier entry for some of the early English history surrounding the series), and it has put me in mind of the school "houses" we had for intramural competitions in my junior school, back in the Dark Ages of the 1960s.

There were Romans (red), Saxons (green), Danes (blue) and Normans (yellow). Interestingly, no Celts, which were arguably the "original" inhabitants of the British Isles. I was in Roman house, and we always used to win most things at that time, at least as I remember it. I remember getting shiny, sticky-backed red stars on my report card, and the occasional black square for naughty things (ah, those were the days!).

For what it's worth, at my senior school (grammar then, later, comprehensive), the houses were named for some of the great old families of that area of Derbyshire, an idea that somehow seems almost inconceivable today: Glossop (red), Barker (green), Taylor (blue) and Cockerton (yellow). Glossop always used to win most things, at least in the sporting arena; I, however, was in Taylor, which used to lose most things.

A strange idea, houses. I wonder if they still exist today? Certainly not at my daughter's Canadian school, but there does seem something quintessentially English about it all.