Grades & Head Boy/Head Girl

[Blaise]

No: HPFGUIDX 5302

Penny wrote:  

"Head Boy & Head Girl are not necessarily the best students in the 
class in any given year (I don't think -- Brits can correct me if I'm 
wrong). I doubt it works that James is Head Boy & Lily is Head Girl 
automatically if the class standings were thus: James, Sirius, Remus, 
Lily, Severus, etc.  I think there's more to it than just the best
marks, although I'm sure that grades do figure into the overall 
choice."

At my old school, the Head Boy or Girl were good students, but not 
necessarily the top of the year (we didn't have a 'top of the year' 
student in any case because everyone does differently in each subject 
and people don't study the same subjects).  They had to be 
sufficiently academically able so that they could do all the extra 
duties without their work suffering, but their character and what 
they'd done extra-curriculum were more important.  They were supposed 
to be willing to follow and uphold the rules, be charismatic, heavily 
involved in school life, and generally be fine upstanding people.  
They were chosen from among the Prefects; you couldn't be Head Boy 
unless you had been a Prefect first.  I suspect this is also true of 
Hogwarts.   

-Blaise.