By Jessi Bell and Zoe Rowbotham
Being a prefect is very rewarding. It’s something that I looked forward to throughout the entirety of key stage three and four because I admired all the Sixth Formers that committed their time to giving back to our school community and I wanted to be able to relate. In September, I embarked upon the process of applying and shortly after, I was elated to be able to call myself a prefect.
Undeniably, there are lots of responsibilities and roles available to take part in. For example, a wide range of committees are accessible to prefects such as the Leadership Council and even a new Eurovision committee. While this can be somewhat overwhelming on top of the AS/A level workload, it proves to be worthwhile through the active role you play in the school community. Additionally, a key part of being a prefect is to be a role model for the younger students and provide them with a kind, respectful pupil to aspire to be like in future; keen to help others, as you will often find the prefects opening doors for others, offering their help and generally being a cordial character. The prefect family tries to maintain this sense of community through routine Monday meetings where we address important information for the upcoming weeks and the events at hand in order to ensure they all run smoothly.
Recently, Bassaleg had a Fitness Drive to help aid Kidney Support UK. The prefect team had an extremely large amount of say in what was done and came up with a majority of the activities which were then carried out on the day. Health and happiness days such as these are a big part of what it means to be a prefect. On these days, we are stationed around the school in different places to oversee certain activities and to help to create a sense of belonging. Many pupils say that these days are something they look forward to each term because of the freedom of wearing their own clothes and being able to express themselves on these occasions. As well as the wide array of entertaining activities, which are held in classrooms and on school yards to bring a sense of liveliness to the day, such as the virtual cycle from Newport to Calais which we held in forge gym at lunchtime on Friday, to raise awareness about physical fitness and the importance of it.
Overall, it is safe to say that the Fitness Drive was a success and we look forward to hosting the next Health & Happiness day: Comic Relief!
Comments