The magic of houses competitions is undeniable. That’s one of the reasons why the tradition has become a British School of Sofia (BSS) staple.

What is the best way to test knowledge, promote team spirit, and collaboration? How do we create processes meant to inspire, uplift, and engage children? Houses competitions provide the perfect opportunity to stray away from a traditional academic curriculum while still encouraging learning excellence (and fun!).

During the 2024/2025 academic year, BSS has held two competitions so far. The first one occurred as a part of our Halloween celebration. The second was a standalone event that got the entire school community involved and eager to win.

At BSS, students belong to one of four houses – Dragon, Phoenix, Centaur, and Kraken. Each student gets assigned randomly to a house at the time of their enrolment. 

The aim of this allocation is to give students an opportunity to interact and collaborate with others who aren’t in their grade. The houses system promotes team spirit and working together in order to dominate a competition. 

Our most prominent event this academic year took place on April 9.

Students competed in multiple disciplines, each one meant to test their knowledge, resilience, critical thinking, and team spirit.

A few of the most distinctive parts of the event included a music challenge, art workshops, science quizzes, a football tournament, poetry writing, history quizzes, origami creation, a math challenge, and various others.

Each house dominated multiple challenges but to win it all, we needed to do a final calculation, tallying up all the points and determining who performed best in most of the competition.

House Dragon came out as the big winner, achieving the most impressive performance in disciplines like poetry, debate, languages, math, history, and geography.

House Kraken came in second, followed by House Phoenix and House Centaur.

Houses competitions like the ones organised at the British School of Sofia (BSS) foster a sense of community that extends beyond the classroom. This camaraderie contributes to a more enriching environment, stronger friendships, and the ability to work together toward a bigger goal. 

Healthy competition always adds a fun element to the learning process. Furthermore, it has a profoundly positive effect on motivation. Overall performance improves since students take ownership of knowledge acquisition and addressing challenges.