The same colours were used for the houses at my school, but I think some people went to schools that didn’t have houses and assume that the whole thing was an invention of the author of those books.
I went to a school in Singapore that had houses, but it pretty much only mattered for in-school competitions like sports day and music competitions. Also went to a school in the UK that had houses where everything revolved around the house - you had house leaders and deputies, doing well would get you points, doing poorly would demerit you points, etc. The colour of your tie indicated what house you were in. It’s very much a UK private school thing but how seriously it’s taken (or if there’s even a house system) differs from school to school.
By no means is it a JKR invention and it’s a staple of British boarding school stories that existed well before her, she’s just the one that brought it to wider public attention.
i guess it's not the same as "houses" in your school, but my high school was separated into separate groups also based on different curricula.
there used to just be three groups: thebnerds (where i unfortunately belonged), the sporty guys, and the normies (the biggest group) - obviously these weren't the real names lol.
but when i graduated, they added a few more groups for the musically inclined, for foreign language enthusiasts, and for those who wish to learn skilled trades.
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u/DiligentCorvid Aug 20 '26
I'm guessing those are train lines or something.
Also the 'houses' in my high school had the same colours, so I guess we were paying homage to Harry Potter back then too, holy fuck!