Houses
All girls are placed in one of four Houses: Carrington (purple), Kensington (blue), Paget (yellow) and Ducat (red/orange). Girls with sisters at school or with previous family connections will be placed in the same house, where it is known.
The Houses are named after benefactors of The Abbey School. The first houses associated with the school were boarding houses; although the school was not founded as a boarding school modes of transport were limited at the beginning of the twentieth century and the provision of boarding places enabled more families to send their daughters to be educated at school rather than at home.
In 1918 the first houses, Carrington House and Paget House, were established for daygirls. Girls were allocated alphabetically; those with a surname from A-J were placed in Carrington and from K-Z in Paget.
Carrington House was named after Sir John Carrington who had been a member of the 1907 local committee working with the Church Schools Company. He was one of the three members of the Council of Management who saved the school from being offered to Reading Town Council. As first secretary to the Council, he worked untiringly for the school until 1911.
Paget House was named after Dr Francis Paget, who became Bishop of Oxford in 1901, was one of the founders of the school and as President always took the chair at the annual prize-giving ceremony. He was deeply committed to the school and was a personal friend of Miss Musson.
Ducat House was formed in 1923 by dividing Carrington and Paget. Archdeacon Ducat was a great friend of the school from 1905, and was Chairman of the Council of Management from 1909 until his death in 1922. He laid the foundation stone of the school in 1905. He too was instrumental in preventing the school from being taken over by the Local Education Committee and enabled the school to retain its Church status.
The alphabetical division was abandoned in 1935 in an attempt to keep numbers even between houses.
Kensington House, home of The Abbey Junior School, was used as a boarding house from 1928-1946. In 1946 boarding ceased at the school and Kensington became the fourth house, with the building retained for the expanding Junior School.
Colonel Kensington was a governor and benefactor of the school. He too was a prominent member of the Council of Management and its secretary for some years. He coached some of the seniors in Mathematics and would often chaperone the boarders on picnics.
These four houses have continued to this day. Two Sixth Form House Captains run them and competitions still feature prominently, with the House Challenge Cup awarded annually.
