CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM NEERIM SOUTH
Neerim South Primary School began its search for its student leadership team next year with its grade five students pressing their case for school captaincy last week.
Students interested in the school captaincy wrote a letter to school principal Jennie Pratt before giving a speech in front of their schoolmates, who then voted for their best pick.
Some of the ideas put forward included fundraising with confectionary at Christmas and Easter, increasing the amount of dress up days, making the school a bully free zone and fun, extending lunch time by 15 minutes to implement clubs, along with raising money for equipment in the school and for charity.
Other students simply promised to be encouraging, a team player, be helpful and considerate along with treating every student with honesty and respect, with staff regarding the speeches as some of the best seen at the school in the past 11 years.
Once elected by their peers, students sat down for an interview with Jennie Prout. An announcement on the school captaincy is expected to be made this week.
Mrs Prout said the election of its school captains formed part of a wider leadership program at the school, with election of its junior school council and house captains to follow.
Students get a chance to lead from an early age, with leaders in each grade taking it in turns to run the school assembly. To ensure a wide range of leaders, each student is only allowed to hold one leadership position within the school.
“We’ve been teaching them about democracy, that they only get one vote and they need to make it count,” Mrs Prout said.
“They also know that the most popular person is not necessarily the best leader.”
With a strong field of candidates, Mrs Prout preached the school value of persistence to those who may be disappointed to miss out.
“Two of Neerim District Secondary College’s captains were students of this school, but they weren’t school captains here,” she said.