Current Process
Overview of the Naming Process
York House has embarked on a process to generate new names for the YHS House system. This process is intended to engage YHS students, alumnae, and faculty and staff.
Please expand the tabs below for more details about each stage of this naming process. You’ll find more information about the opportunities for your involvement and about the decision-making process for finalizing the new House names.
Overview of the Naming Process
List of 10 items.
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Steering Committee Convened
March 2021A steering committee consisting of Kara McDonald, Director of Learning; Meredith McInnis, Sr. Social Studies Teacher; and David Prissinotti, Athletics Director, has convened to guide the naming process. -
Advisory Group Meeting #1
April 12, 2021The House Names Advisory Group has been assembled consisting of YHS students, alumnae, faculty and staff.The purpose of the Advisory Group is to support the House Naming process, to offer feedback, and to represent different perspectives within the School community.These advisory group members are: Jamie (Class of 2027), Zoya (Class of 2026), Julia (Class of 2023), Jacqueline (Class of 2021), Tanya Boteju (Senior School teacher), Courtney Cousineau ‘99 (President of the Alumnae Association), Chris Cropley (Senior School teacher), Zosia Dorcey ‘93 (Senior School teacher), Rhiannon Hillis (staff), Ita Kane-Wilson (staff), Angela Kingerlee (Little School teacher), Alex Lesk ‘91 (Senior School teacher), and Casey Wilson-Gay ‘08 (Junior School teacher). -
Open Call to YHS Community to Submit House Names for Consideration
April 21-May 16 2021All YHS students, YHS alumnae and current staff/faculty can submit their name suggestions through the House Names website.
Any submissions that do not meet the basic criteria will be ineligible. -
Focus Groups #1
April-May 2021
Dates TBAFocus groups will be held to engage the community with the website and to generate names submissions. -
Names Submissions Close
May 16, 2021The submission period for house names closes on May 16, 2021. -
Focus Groups #2
May 17-21, 2021Focus groups will be held to provide feedback on submitted names, based on the criteria. -
Advisory Group Meeting #2
May 25, 2021The Advisory Group will meet to evaluate the name submissions against the basic and distinguishing criteria.Using the criteria, the Advisory Group will narrow the eligible submissions to a short list of approximately five names. -
Short List Shared with YHS Community for Feedback
May 27-June 6, 2021The short list of approximately five House names will be shared with the YHS Community.Current students, YHS alumnae, and current staff and faculty will be able to rank their choices and offer feedback on the short list. -
Advisory Group Meeting #3
June 8, 2021The Advisory Group will review the YHS community’s feedback and use it to help inform a recommendation to the YHS Head of School for the new House names.The selection will be House names that best capture the spirit of all of the naming criteria. -
Announcement of House Names
June 2021YHS Head of School will share the new House names with the YHS community in a written electronic communication.
York House School Statement on House Names
Issued January 2021
Beginning in the 1930s, York House School developed an important tradition that continues to shape student life: the House system. Students and faculty are organized into four Houses for the purpose of fostering school spirit through intramural sport and friendly competition. While the House system will remain an integral part of our school, we are changing the names of these Houses.
Today, York House School is issuing this statement of apology to acknowledge that the school misrepresented Indigenous peoples with its House names. Associating House names with Indigenous peoples is inappropriate and will be formally discontinued at the school. The names that York House used until recently were imposed on Indigenous peoples by colonial settlers and are not the traditional names these First Nations use to self-identify. The names are considered disrespectful for the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Wyandot Nations. The House names also disregarded the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations upon whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands we live and learn.
While the negative impacts of using these names may not have been known in the 1930s when the House names were adopted, we now know that using these names for sport and competition trivialized Indigenous nations, perpetuated stereotypes, and was disrespectful. For this, we apologize.
As a place of learning, York House School has a responsibility to educate students about Indigenous perspectives and resilience and the impacts of colonization, and to build relationships of reconciliation with Indigenous communities. We encourage students to question, examine, and engage in ongoing dialogue about history and the world we live in. In keeping with this, students and faculty stopped using the House names several years ago out of concern about their impact and out of respect for Indigenous communities. York House School is committed to making institutional changes in support of learning, empathy, and social justice.
We will continue to deepen Indigenous education at York House School, and include Indigenous perspectives as we develop our practices. Together, our community will explore the importance of this change in House names and begin a consultative process of generating new House names in the spring of 2021.
Beginning in the 1930s, York House School developed an important tradition that continues to shape student life: the House system. Students and faculty are organized into four Houses for the purpose of fostering school spirit through intramural sport and friendly competition. While the House system will remain an integral part of our school, we are changing the names of these Houses.
Today, York House School is issuing this statement of apology to acknowledge that the school misrepresented Indigenous peoples with its House names. Associating House names with Indigenous peoples is inappropriate and will be formally discontinued at the school. The names that York House used until recently were imposed on Indigenous peoples by colonial settlers and are not the traditional names these First Nations use to self-identify. The names are considered disrespectful for the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Wyandot Nations. The House names also disregarded the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations upon whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands we live and learn.
While the negative impacts of using these names may not have been known in the 1930s when the House names were adopted, we now know that using these names for sport and competition trivialized Indigenous nations, perpetuated stereotypes, and was disrespectful. For this, we apologize.
As a place of learning, York House School has a responsibility to educate students about Indigenous perspectives and resilience and the impacts of colonization, and to build relationships of reconciliation with Indigenous communities. We encourage students to question, examine, and engage in ongoing dialogue about history and the world we live in. In keeping with this, students and faculty stopped using the House names several years ago out of concern about their impact and out of respect for Indigenous communities. York House School is committed to making institutional changes in support of learning, empathy, and social justice.
We will continue to deepen Indigenous education at York House School, and include Indigenous perspectives as we develop our practices. Together, our community will explore the importance of this change in House names and begin a consultative process of generating new House names in the spring of 2021.
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