If you dreamed of being a house captain or prefect at school but never quite reached the heady heights of those coveted roles, now’s your chance to find out what life would have been like!
SoGlos has been catching up with Olivia Garrard, a year 12 pupil and head of school at Wycliffe College.
For more information visit wycliffe.co.uk directly.
What does the role of head of school involve?
Every morning I have to go to the chapel a bit early. I stand with the head and the reverend and say good morning to all the pupils coming into the chapel. It’s then my job to go to the front and say: ‘Good morning, will the school please stand for the head’; sometimes we have to conduct the chapel too.
A few weeks ago, I did a talk on change with the former head of school. Also, we run the prefect meetings and organise prefect duties.
How did you get the role?
If you want to be a prefect you put your name forward, and teachers and last year’s prefects rate you out of five. From that, the top eight are selected to be senior prefects, and from those eight you can apply to be head of school.
I had to do an interview and write a letter explaining why I thought I’d be good at the job.
Why did you want to become head of school?
I thought it would really challenge me, and it was something I really wanted to work towards. It also looks great on your CV!
On an average day, what does the head of school do?
After I’ve welcomed everyone to chapel, we usually go off to our lessons. There are two lessons in the morning before break time. Then another two lessons before lunch.
On Thursdays we have prefect meetings, where we discuss what needs doing this week, and if there’s any big events that we need to plan for, and we decide who is going to take on each role. We arrange speeches for speech day, remembrance services, carol concerts and that kind of thing; but we also have a day for year eights, which is run by the prefects to help them get more integrated into the school.
Sometimes we have after school activities too. I do debating club, I only started that a year ago and I’m really enjoying it; and I also do the Gold D of E [Duke of Edinburgh Award].
What’s your advice to someone who wants to become a prefect or a head of school?
I’d say it’s a great challenge to take on and it’s really rewarding. If you throw yourself at everything, you’ll have a real shot of doing well. It helps with your public speaking and you get used to doing things that put you out of your comfort zone, which is really good.
For more information about Wycliffe College see Wycliffe College, call (01453) 822432, or visit wycliffe.co.uk directly.
