Welcome to the wizarding world of Trinity Preparatory School of Florida, where every student has recently been sorted into one of six houses: Hay, Maughan, Brokaw, St. John, Ellis or Lawson. A new development this year, the house system strives to further unite the Trinity family. Upper school advisories from mixed grade levels are grouped into a “house” and participate in various competitions throughout the school year.
Although the school community is already known to be tight-knit, division among grades is inevitable. The house system initia-tive aims to minimize it by encouraging students from various grades to work together and root for each other throughout the year.
“The freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors will all collectively be a part of one community, so if you need assistance with
anything, it’s like a built-in mentor-mentee system, which we love,” Head of St. John House Michael Brown said.
Each house is led by four seniors, called prefects, who were selected by faculty members through a name-blind application process. In addition to strong leadership skills, Brown believes the prefects should embody the passion for school spirit and connectivity that the program was designed to promote. With this school year marking the dawn of the house system, the current senior class is responsible for setting a foundation that will follow among future generations of seniors.
“I feel honored because we’re the very first prefects and we get to choose the colors and the crests for the following years,” Senior and Ellis House Prefect Brinkley Harrold said.
Additionally, the new house system seeks to provide seniors with a significant leadership opportunity.
“We want this to be a preeminent leadership position here on campus,” Brown said.“It would look insanely good on a resume.”
The house system will be predominantly student-led, allowing for students to exhibit their organizational and leadership skills
among their peers.
“The faculty members are chaperoning, but the seniors are the ones designing the games, organizing it, managing the logistics, etc.,” Assistant Head of Upper School Sebastiaan Blickman said.
Blickman and Brown ascribe the concept of the house system to the well-known book and movie saga “Harry Potter.” While the Hogwarts houses compete against each other for the House Cup, Trinity students will compete for other various prizes.
“You gain house points all year long, but at the end of every competition, there will be many prizes and rewards,” Brown said.
“These could be something like a dress-down day, free Chipotle for your house or skip-the-line-in-the-Grille passes.”
The house system will be integrated into some preexisting traditions here at Trinity in order to limit grade level division and instead focus on creating one united family present throughout all interscholastic gatherings.
“We hope to rope in some (traditions) like Headmaster’s Day to make it a house-based event rather than split up by grade levels,” Brown said.
In addition to the school’s annual traditions, the house competitions will be spread out throughout the year. Student Council has allotted the funds for eight in total — four held on campus and four off campus — during the 2025-2026 academic year.
“The competitions could be anything from a Mario Kart game to a Bake Off,” Brown said. “(Students) would have a better under-
standing of what would be enjoyable for our campus than (the faculty) does.”
With promising developments ahead for the house system, Harrold is eager to take part in the first big step towards bringing the
school community together.
“I think it’s going to connect everybody as a whole, the school, the grades, and people are just going to become more connected
and more like a family,” Harrold said.
