Our new cohort of Prefects have begun their new roles in the school leadership structure, starting with a leadership afternoon briefing meeting with senior staff members within the school. The event was specifically for our Prefects to discuss their leadership ambitions for the year and recognise the responsibility their position carries. Head of Sixth Form, Alex Boyd Williams, explains how leadership is uniquely central to our entire Sixth Form and, while our prefects are leaders by position, leadership opportunities are regularly created for all of our Sixth Form pupils to develop their own skills and adopt leadership positions.
Mr Boyd Williams said: “Most schools prepare a very small percentage of pupils for leadership. The result is that most pupils leave school with no understanding of leadership and no experience of it and that has a serious impact on leadership within society more widely.
“What we try to do here is ensure that every pupil is educated in leadership and ensure that every pupil has the opportunity to lead. We have leadership training where pupils are able to discover what type of a leader they are. Whether they are an extroverted leader or an introverted leader, or somewhere in between, it’s about using their skills as an individual to make a positive change to our community.”
In our Sixth Form, we have 13 Prefects with very different individual roles. These include Heads of Houses, Global Awareness leads, Head Boy and Head Girl. At the Senior school in particular, Sixth Formers play an integral role in the leadership of their Houses and are encouraged to coordinate and take responsibility for different school-wide initiatives. The first major example of this in the academic calendar is the ever-popular House Singing event, which took place last week. Houses were led by their Sixth Form members to choose a song and rehearse regularly in order to sing in front of the school in the competition on the night of the 17th September.
Mr Boyd Williams added: “I think that the key thing from my point of view, is that pupils themselves lead pupil activities. As staff, it is our role to empower our pupils to adopt good leadership techniques and put themselves forward as a leader when they initially perhaps think this is not their natural place. We try to encourage all of our pupils to challenge themselves and consider how their style of communicating and delegating can be most effective in various situations. I think when the Sixth Formers model leadership, it has a galvanising effect on the rest of our school.”
