(5 minute read)
Yes, I put my hands up. I admit I haven’t posted anything for almost a year now (excluding the unusual number of essays and reports), but I’m back with another experience. This is the story of how I was invested as the Head Boy at my school in April, 2022.
To be a leader, you have to lead yourself first
As the dreaded final year of our IGCSEs began, word was spread that the school would be introducing its first Student Council. Soon, classes were filled with tittle-tattle on who would make it into our Student Council.
The school undertook a 3 step selection to find students that would fill the 8 Student Prefect Positions.
- Student Body Elections
The 8 Student Council Positions
- Head Boy
- Head Girl
- House Captain (Phoenix) ~ Yellow
- House Captain (Hercules) ~ Red
- House Captain (Pegasus) ~ Green
- House Captain (Polaris) ~ Blue
- School Editor
- Activities Captain
If the school were to allow every single student run for a position in the Student Council, there would be too many applications. Therefore, 8 students were picked from Grade 10 and 9, that were seen to be fit for any role in the Student Council.
The teacher and coordinators discussed who they deemed ready for a position in the Student Council based on their observations for the past years.
With only 9 students in Grade 10, the chances of me getting nominated were high.
Moreover, we were only a month into offline school so behaviour wasn’t a problem for me at all…if only they knew
I was nominated along with 4 other from my class, 2 girls and 2 boys (excluding me), and 3 from Grade 9.
The 8 of us were briefed about the different positions available. We would have to make speeches the following week to the entire Student Body, that would then vote for who they wanted in which position. We were given the liberty to pick more than one position, as a back up.
I picked Head Boy, House Captain (Phoenix) and School Editor
With relatively short notice, I got working on my speech right away. After typing away for a few hours I found myself turning to Google for help since this was the first time I had heard about a Student Council.
After running through some example videos and articles, I realised that if I wanted to get the most votes I needed to connect with the students and relate to them at personal level.
After 2 days I finally had my election speech ready complemented by exciting ideas for the year (some of them were a little ambitious).
I also wrote speeches for House Captain and School Editor
Head Boy Election Speech:
Good Afternoon Respected Principal, all the teachers and my fellow students. My name is Lucius and I think most of you here know me as Rudolph the reindeer from the Grade 9 Christmas Play. After doing something that embarrassing, I’m wondering if any of you are going to take me seriously. Here I am to tell you why I’m the best candidate for Head Boy.
First of all, I am honoured to be here and I thank all the teachers, the coordinator and the principal for giving me this opportunity.
From the time I have been in the Gera School, I have been happy. I stand here knowing that my story in this school is part of the Gera School Story and that I owe you, collectively, the gera school, something. And as the Head Boy, I want to give back. Therefore the first thing on my list is I promise that there will be no homework ever again! Just kidding, of-course I can’t do that. However I can be the bridge between the school administration and the students and ensure that there is a voice for everyone.
I believe that I’m the best candidate for Head Boy because I’m mature, respectful and above all empathetic. This will make me accessible to all of you. My teamplaying and leadership skills will allow me to work in collaboration with the Head Girl, House , Sports and Activities captains and School Editor to drive the student council to achieve greater things and make this the best year we’ve ever had.
I would try to work with the rest of the student council and the school administration to carry out these ideas: A lost and found property deposit, A school plant nursery. We could also allow students to organise assemblies once or twice in a week. I also hope to appoint break and lunch monitors to ensure the safety of school equipment and the students. Moreover, the student council could perhaps help organise events like food banks, night camp and prom depending on the covid situation. Last but not the least a school Ebay System to help circulate all sorts of resources within the school.
In conclusion, I want the student body and the administration to know that as head boy, I can assure that I will make myself accessible through email or in person and on one hand listen to any sorts of issues however eccentric or intellectual they maybe for example needing mirrors in the washrooms, or a change in the school GoodBye song and on the other hand work with the school administration to solve these problems if possible.
I would be grateful for your vote for head boy and If elected, I pledge to represent the student body and act within my scope as a head boy closely following all the school’s guidelines and the school administration.
On 18th April 2022 all the students gathered in the auditorium of our school. The mood in the room was tense and I couldn’t wait to give my speech. Each student was given a voting card.
One at a time the 8 student prefects gave their speeches for the different positions they stood for. The response from the student body and teachers in the audience was re-assuring and I felt proud giving my speech.
Once everyone was done, the students filled in the voting cards and put them in 4 big cardboard boxes that were coloured according to the respective houses.
A few days later all the student prefects were called for interviews. This was the biggest step we had to take to get our desired position in the Student Council. The interview was conducted by the principal of our school in the presence of our middle school coordinator.
My interview went smoothly and I answered most of the questions impromptu. A great deal of questions revolved around my speech and some even challenged my ideas. I did my best to explain my thoughts and attitudes towards being the Head Boy. Everything was going well until I was asked the closing question and I made a rookie mistake. I said “No” to the question “Do you have any questions for us?”
It was a long weekend of waiting in suspense after the interview. The school hadn’t told us when the results would be announced however I hoped that it would be decided over the weekend.
I got ready to go to school the next Monday morning. What are the perks of living on an island? Just that day, the queue at the ferry was longer than usual and now I was running 10 minutes late to school. Eventually when I entered the school all the students had already gone down to the cafeteria for assembly. I quickly ran down the stairs and made my way to the cafeteria.
As I got closer the middle school coordinator made elaborate gestures and signs at me demanding that I hurry up. I could also heard a loud applause echoing through the hall. The teachers were standing just outside the cafeteria and I could see them laughing at me as I walked briskly down the stairs.
I walked into the cafeteria horrified to find 7 student prefects lined in-front of the rest of the school. The principal was announcing the name of the last person in line when the middle school coordinator grabbed my backpack and nudged me forward saying “You are the head boy!”.
I awkwardly took my spot in the line next to the Head Girl. The principal gave me a funny look and re-announced my name, this time with me actually being there. That was the last time I was ever late to school.
Thanks for reading this blog! I hope to post another article soon describing my experiences as Head Boy during the last year!