School House (Boys)

Chris Potts - Houseparent

Chris Potts has been a Houseparent at Sidcot for nearly ten years. Before joining Sidcot, he taught at Wyvern Comprehensive in Weston-Super-Mare.  

School House Boys (SHB) is a calm, happy house with lots of contact between staff and pupils. The relaxed attitude of staff permeates the environment but everyone knows where they stand and what the boundaries are. Special occasions are always marked and birthdays celebrated with cake and decorations to pupils’ doors and in the corridors. When boarders reach the Sixth Form, they can visit the local pub (if they are 18) to help them mix, talk and compete in a friendly atmosphere. There are regular meetings with the school cleaners for tea so that all pupils meet them in a social situation. This type of breaking down of 'them and us' attitudes is at the heart of the Sidcot community.

A successful Houseparent, in Chris’s view, requires patience, a sense of humour, willingness to spend time doing mundane tasks and a clear view of how one wishes the house to be. He also recommends a good 'nose' for when things go wrong and to be strong and calm.

Contact with other people is one of the best aspects of being a Houseparent. Chris gets a great buzz out of his evening meetings with the boys in the house. There are 43 boys aged 15 - 20 in SHB and Chris has a team of 5 people who work with him. As Houseparent Chris is available at all times. He and his wife, Celine, have an 8-month-old baby and find it amazing how just walking around with a baby makes an incredible difference to how the boys treat them.

Chris puts the special nature of boarding at Sidcot down to each person being regarded as unique and capable of great achievement in academic, social and creative terms. There is (to put it in Quaker speak) that of God in everyone.

Top