[HPFGU-OTChatter] OoP: UK School, HB => Prefect? (was Re: ADMIN OOP: READ THIS FIRST most Frequent

[Shaun Hately]

On 27 Jun 2003 at 17:20, Anne wrote:

> So, are the Head Boy and Head Girl sort of like the student body 
> president? Though in US schools, the student body president is 
> usually just one person (either male or female, though I suppose 
> there could be co-presidents). It sounds, though, like the prefects 
> and head boy/head girl deal more with keeping order in the school. Do 
> British schools have student councils like U.S. schools do?

Basically it depends on the school. In some cases, yes, there will be a lot of similarity to 
a Student Body President. In others, there won't be. In some cases, Prefects are 
expected to help maintain order and handle some disciplinary issues, in others, it's a 
ceremonial position. It's not like there is a single model, and in many cases, the model 
has changed over the years.

I'll describe my school - which while Australian, was modelled on British schools.

We had Prefects (I was one) who were 'semi-elected' by the senior students. That is, 
there was an election and it nearly always determined who 90% of the prefects would be 
- however the staff had a right-of-veto (very rarely exercised) and also could appoint 
Prefects if they felt the election hadn't selected someone who should have held the 
position - that was still rare, but more common than a veto.

The Captain of the School was appointed by the Headmaster. In nearly all cases (all but 
3 since 1895) he was a Prefect anyway. Prefects had some disciplinary powers - we all 
had to carry around cards at this school, which could be signed by a teacher or a prefect 
if they caught you misbehaving - if you ever managed to get 10 signatures in a term, you 
were severely punished (often physically). Prefects worked on a rota system, 
supervising the day boys on their way home from school - basically you'd have prefects 
on the train station watching. They were also expected to supervise other students when 
on excursions (in fact, I phoned the school only a couple of weeks ago, when I saw 
some guys from my old school behaving absolutely abominably on a trip to the Museum 
- there was a prefect with them, but he seemed pretty much incapable of maintaining 
order - I sympathised, I wasn't much good at it either).

We also had an SRC - Student Representative Council. Totally elected by all students 
in the school. SRC members could be Prefects (and often were) but it had a different 
focus. It was supposed to represent students interests, and bring forward grievances, 
organise some social activities, etc. The SRC was pretty much a joke when I was at the 
school - it never got listened to - but that has changed a bit in the 11 years since I left.

What else did we do? *Some* Prefects organised inter-school competition - at some 
stage in the dim, dark past, all interschool sports were organised by the Prefects, by the 
time I was at the school, sport wasn't anymore, but a few things like Debating 
competitions still were. We could be called upon to adjudicate lunchtime disputes - while 
telling on someone to a teacher was considered bad form, telling a Prefect about a fight 
was considered OK - because I'd been the victim of pretty severe bullying in my younger 
years, I was called on to deal with bullies a lot - people knew I took it seriously!.

We also did things unofficially. At one stage, we found out that somebody had come 
onto an isolated part of the schools land and was trying to sell some of the younger kids 
drugs. We basically formed a group, went down there and surrounded him, and then 
persuaded him that that was a bad idea (and I do mean, persuaded - no violence, just a 
promise of violence if he returned.)

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They
don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit
the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the
facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia