The House system was established in 1983 with the aim of improving the quality of care for students. There are sixteen Houses, each consisting of approximately 100 boys from Years 7-12, with a Housemaster and five tutors in each House. Each house has been named after a Patron. Housemasters are concerned with the academic and pastoral development of boys under their care. In so doing, the House System at Riverview aims to develop the "well-rounded person", as Peter Hans Kolvenbach SJ emphasised in the "Characteristics of Jesuit Education":