St Mary's Junior School: creating tomorrow's leaders

Our Junior School prides itself on creating the leaders of tomorrow through the number of leadership opportunities on offer to the girls, from Reception up. We have five school councils alongside Prefects, Prefect Assistants and Sports Captains. Last year, our Eco Council helped to organise the Climate Change Conference for Children, which was a week-long focus on climate change culminating in a debate with children from St Albans RC Primary School, supported by Friends of the Earth volunteers. This year, the Library Council has played a key role in encouraging the Prep girls to try new books – including arranging their own display on the Acton House staircase.

Student voice and leadership are at the centre of an HPL philosophy. Our students continue to lead through scholarships, Prefect action and clubs and societies. This term our Prefects were proud to lead students in a competition to consider a better post Covid-19 world: ‘What’s your vision for the world after coronavirus?’ The aim of the competition was to make students’ voices heard. Our students have realised that the COVID-19 pandemic raises many questions about how our societies are organised, and how public health challenges can be tackled. As governments struggle to protect lives and keep our economies afloat, ambitious ideas that once seemed improbable have suddenly become surprisingly plausible.

Now that everyone is thinking about what our postlockdown future might look like, the Senior School Prefects wanted to find out about the best ideas from the next generation regarding questions such as:

• What might democracy look like as countries emerge from lockdown?

• Can society be fairer in the future? • How will public health change as a result of this global pandemic?

• What lessons from history have we forgotten that might guide how the world recovers?

• How will our societies and cultures respond to this global crisis and its aftermath?

Find out more about leadership at St Mary's Junior School.