Dear Parents,
A warm welcome to you all to Term III here at College Street. As ever, the holidays have seen a wide array of exciting activities and trips out from the School, ranging from musical touring in southern New South Wales to our Volleyball tour of Italy, as well as various camps for football, rifle shooting, rugby and tennis.
Of particular note, our Form VI boys are soon to embark upon the Trial Examinations, as well as taking stock of the fact that this is their final term at Grammar.
Thus, as we recognise the imminent transition about to be made by our Form VI boys to the next stage in their lives and careers, it is important to raise the matter of selecting next year’s Prefects. As boys in Form VI approach the Trials and start to become less available for other duties, we begin the process of finding Prefects for the new year. Each year the Headmaster appoints twenty-four Prefects after an election process introduced some years ago following extensive consultation with senior boys. First, we circulate a document to all boys currently in Form V setting out as clearly as we can the duties and responsibilities of Prefects. Then we hold a secret ballot. Every boy in Form V votes for those he thinks would make the best Prefects. The ballot produces a shortlist of forty candidates who are then invited to submit to the Headmaster a written application for the position. There is no set format for the application. After further consultation with Housemasters, and others where necessary, twenty-four Prefects are finally chosen and appointed.
It is most important that the poll not be regarded as a popularity contest. Electors are strongly encouraged to vote for boys they think will carefully and responsibly carry out the duties of Prefect as set out in the briefing notes they are given. Election as a Prefect is not a general reward for participation in the life of the School, nor again a prize for social notoriety. The appointment is seen in many schools as recognition of success in some activity – usually sport. This is not the case here. Each year many very talented boys are not chosen as Prefects; we are concerned simply to find those who are prepared to take on the specific, sometimes uncongenial and onerous duties associated with the position.
At this point I would like to acknowledge what an outstanding job our current Prefects have done over the last three terms. I am immensely proud of their achievements, their faultless dedication and their integrity.
Dr RB Malpass
The Headmaster is available whenever he is not otherwise occupied to see boys without appointment.
