Roles and Responsibilities

Pupils at St Michael’s Prep have the opportunity to take on roles of responsibility throughout their time in the Prep school.

It is important that children have the opportunity to learn the value of leadership and responsibility. Some roles are applied for, some are voted on by peers and others are nominated and voted for by staff.

Each class has a Form Captain and Vice Captain, voted for by their peers. These are termly positions and the responsibilities of these post holders extends to classroom organisation, arranging for the class to assist on their allocated day for Dining Room set up, collection of the break time snack and so on.

Each form puts forward two members of the School Council. These positions are also voted for by their peers within their form classes. The council members hold the position for the academic year, allowing them the opportunity to develop their communication skills, both whilst in council meetings, raising issues and in the classroom, reporting back to their form what was discussed.

Each of the four school houses; Dover, Leeds, Rochester and Windsor, have two pupil Heads of House. These are Year 8 pupils who are appointed by the staff Head of House and hold the position for the entire academic year. Their role is to assist with the organisation of the children within the house at house events, including Sports Day, the Inter House Music Challenge, Inter House Games matches and so on. They are also expected to assist in maintaining the drive to accumulate as many house points as possible for the house.

Children, while in the Trinity Term in Year 7, can apply to become a Prefect. The applications are submitted to the Deputy Head (Pastoral). While in this final term of the year, these Year 7 children shadow the incumbent Year 8 Prefects to observe what their role is when on duty with the younger age groups in the playground and in the second half of the term, while the Year 8 cohort are mostly unavailable due to their post-exam programme, they fulfil these duties almost entirely. Successful completion of the role in this term will see them receive their Prefect badges in the final assembly of the year.

As mentioned above, Prefects are expected to give up their time, allocated on a rota, to assist with the supervision of the younger age groups while at break. They can join in with them or can officiate break time matches or games, help arbitrate minor disagreements or bring all parties to the teacher on duty to solve any issues that have arisen, if the Prefect feels they are not able to deal with it.

All children that hold a position of responsibility are expected to fulfil the role to the best of their ability. We, as a school, look to these children as leaders and role models to their peers. All children are encouraged to strive towards holding a position of responsibility at some point in their time at St Michael’s.

Finally, we look to our leaders to propose changes and improvements in the way the system operates. All ideas proposed are considered, to investigate their benefit to the children.