Whats a "learning house"?

I havent been to have a look at the local school yet, but there was a big double page spread about it (p-12 only opened this year) in the local paper, and they refer to the classrooms as 'learning houses' and only have 4 of them for prep-7 - 450 students at present.

From the photos, I looks like a huge room with 4+ classes running in there at the one time. Does that sound normal to you? How do kids learn in that sort of an environement, particular if they are advanced or delayed?

Im really not sure Im comfprtable with it and might have to look at a different school for DS now, but Im open to opinions.