Houses turn LiveSchool points into a school-wide friendly competition. If you're setting them up for the first time, this article walks you through it.
The whole process takes about 5 minutes, and you can change anything later.
👤 Who can do this: Admins and Site Leaders. If you're a teacher, you'll see a message asking you to talk to an admin about setting up houses.
Before you start
Make sure your student roster in LiveSchool is up to date. The setup wizard pulls from your existing students, so anyone you add after launch will need to be assigned to a house manually.
Step 1: Open the launch wizard
Click House Points in the left sidebar. You'll land on a welcome screen that says "Get ready to unleash camaraderie!" - click Get Started.
Step 2: Create your Houses
First, decide how many houses you want. Most schools choose 4, but you can pick any number between 2 and 24. Use the plus and minus buttons to set the count.
For each house, give it a name (Phoenix, Fortuna, Valor - whatever fits your school) and click the color circle to pick a team color. Colors show up everywhere: the dashboard, leaderboard, student buttons (when setting is on).
Click Continue when you're done.
Step 3: Add students to Houses
Now it's time to decide how students get sorted. You have three options:
Option | Best for |
Sort for Me | Most schools. Randomly assigns students to houses, balanced by grade level so no house is top-heavy. |
Import CSV | Schools that already have a spreadsheet of student-to-house assignments. |
Use Rosters/Grades | Schools that want an existing roster or a grade level to become a house (e.g., "all of 9th grade is House Phoenix"). |
Sort for Me
Click Sort for Me and LiveSchool will randomize everyone across houses, keeping each grade evenly split. You can still reassign individual students using the dropdowns next to their names - useful if you want siblings or friend groups together.
Import CSV
Click Import CSV. You'll see two options side by side: Download Template and Upload.
Click Download Template first. We'll generate a spreadsheet with every student in your school pre-filled - one row per student, with their ID and name already in place.
Open the file and fill in the House column next to each student's name. You can leave rows blank for students who aren't in a house yet.
Save the file (as
.csv,.xlsx, or.xls) and drag it into the Upload area.We'll flag any rows that don't match a known student or house so you can fix them before continuing.
⚠️ Heads up: The importer only works for students who are already in LiveSchool. Adding a new student row to the spreadsheet won't create that student - they'll just show up as "not found" when you upload. To add a brand-new student to your school, do that first through your normal student management process, then come back and import them into a house.
Use Rosters/Grades
Click Use Rosters/Grades. You'll see a row for each of your houses.
Next to the house you want to set up, click + Add Roster.
In the popover that opens, use the search bar to find the roster or grade you want to connect - just start typing the name.
Select one or more rosters or grades.
Repeat for each house.
This is the fastest option if your houses are your grade levels (e.g., "all of 9th grade is House Phoenix") or if you already maintain rosters that line up with your house structure.
Step 4: Roll out
Review the summary, then click Create Houses! You'll get a confetti celebration (because why not), and a Welcome Letter modal will open so you can download or print letters announcing each student's house - great to send home with families.
Your houses are live - the setup wizard is done. Before you call it a day, head over to House Points > Settings to dial in a few things.
Step 5: Determine your settings
Go to House Points > Settings. You'll see four toggles under Competition Settings. None of them are required, but each one shapes how the competition feels at your school. Here's what they do and when you'd use them.
Competition Start Date
The competition runs from the date you pick here. Points earned before it don't count toward house totals. Most schools update this date at the start of each grading period, month, or school year so teams get a fresh win to compete for, then reset and start again.
Click the date field, pick your start date, and you're set.
Subtract Points for Demerits
Turn this on if you want demerits (negative behavior points) to be deducted from House totals. Teachers awarding demerits will reduce their student's house score.
Note: when a demerit is awarded, the dashboard will not show the name of the student who received the demerit.
Leave it off if you want the competition to only reward positive behavior. Demerits still get recorded for the student, but they won't affect the house standings.
Balanced House Scoring
If your houses don't all have the same number of students, turn this on. It adjusts each house's score based on size, so a smaller house isn't automatically behind just because they have fewer kids earning points.
For the full explanation (and the math), see Balanced Scoring: Fair Competition for Houses of Different Sizes
Enable Public Dashboard URL
Off by default. Turn it on when you want the dashboard to live somewhere that isn't logged into LiveSchool - like a hallway TV or monitor that stays up all day, or embedded on your school's website so families and students can check standings from anywhere.
Once you flip it on, a shareable link appears right below the toggle. Copy it and open it on any device to display the dashboard, or use the Embed in website option on the dashboard itself to drop it into your school site.
Once these are set the way you want, your competition is officially running. Any points teachers award from your Competition Start Date forward will roll into house totals automatically.
What to do next
Teachers will see standings on the Overview screen as points roll in.
Put the Competition Dashboard up on a hallway TV so students can watch standings in real time.