BAIMBRIDGE College, The Hamilton and Alexandra College (THAAC), and Monivae College have all announced their school captains for 2024.

THAAC’s 2024 school captains are Sarah Richardson and Nicholas Hoskyns, with Hannah Croft, Fay Harjanto and Lucas Costa Lima Barroso being named vice captains.

THAAC principal, Michael Horne, said that interviewing the students through the rigorous leadership process is one of the most enjoyable parts of the annual school cycle school.

“This process brings out those things that the applicants value about their school, as well as those things they would like to see improved or changed,” he said.

“I never fail to come away thinking how fortunate we are as a society and nation to have young people of intelligence and integrity offering themselves as leaders.

“The College is in very good hands with our new school leaders.”

Monivae College appointed William McAdam and Tana Nedziwe late last term by principal, Jonathan Rowe.

Tana said that she applied to get out of her comfort zone and to try something new, and is hoping to get good grades as school captain as well.

William said that the process of becoming school captain started out with a vote that was conducted by all staff and Year 12 students which narrowed the candidates down to a smaller group of people.

“When applications were completed we had to write a page worth outlining why you applied, how you followed the MSC value, how you represented the school and why you would be a good leader,” he said.

“This was then followed by an interview with (deputy principal) Ms (Fiona) Mulhall and (senior school coordinator) Ms (Sofia) Vearing,” he said.

“It was around the end of last term we were announced, but there hasn’t been much to do so far but it’s been good to see little tastes of what it’s like, the speaking at assemblies and masses.

“I know there’s a lot of work to come but I think we are settling into it alright so far.”

Baimbridge College principal, Warwick Price, said that the students had to put forward an expression of interest to be a leader.

“There is a range of different categories including school captain, school leader, house leader, form captain, and Student Representative Council representatives,” he said.

“The students then went through a public speaking exercise where they had to present to their peers and the year 12 students gave a criteria sheet and gave feedback information and from there a panel was put together that then selected the leaders.

“It worked out pretty seamless because we had really good numbers that wanted to go into specific areas so that we didn’t have a huge number applying for one position and no one applying for another.

“So, it was pretty even in terms of what they were applying for so that worked out pretty well.”

Mr Price said at Baimbridge College, the school is looking to build student voice and agency.

“The difference between student voice and agency is, agency is actually having an agenda and trying to be an agent for change in the school so that there is something that they’re passionate about and want to push forward,” he said.

“Student voice - we want to see that they’re represented in their lessons, so in that classroom they have an equal voice with the teacher to be able to explain what they’ve understood, and they can check for understanding with their teacher - so there’s that constant voice and then voice across the school.

“They can represent different cohorts of students, and see what is going well, things they’d like to adjust and questions that they don’t understand as to why and how the systems in schools work.

“But in general, we just want them to continue to be part of the school leadership at form level, across different classes, at Student Representative Council and then at school council.

“Some of the leaders have the opportunity to go to school council as well - anybody can attend, but there’s some that we just expect to be part of school council to lead change in the school to be part of that checks and balances process.”

Good Shepherd College and OneSchool Global Hamilton Campus are yet to announce their 2024 senior school captains.