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Meet the new Head and Deputy Heads of College

19 Jun 2019

With the academic year ending and our year 13s becoming Old Wellingtonians, that means it’s time to introduce the new senior pupil leadership team. In the 2019-2020 academic year, Emmie, Katia and Daniel will be Wellington’s Head of College and Deputy Heads respectively.

Congratulations on your appointments! Why did you decide to go for these positions?

Emmie: I saw the great work of the outgoing head and deputies and I wanted to emulate what they’ve done and carry on what they’ve started. They’ve already made so many great changes, and I think it’s really important that pupils take an active interest in trying to improve their school and wider community.

Katia: I spent two years on the Pupil Council prior to this, so I’ve seen what a difference pupil leadership can make. I also know that people from across the College have great ideas to make Wellington even better, so I wanted to take on this position so I can help discover them and make them happen.

Daniel: Similar to Katia, I’ve worked as head and deputy head of The Stanley, and worked with previous Heads of College. I wanted to step up and do something for the whole school. I’ve been here since the College’s founding, Wellington has given me a lot of opportunities and I want to give something back.

What were your initial reactions when you were told that you would be taking on the roles of Head and Deputies?

Emmie: I was shocked initially but also very proud and ready to get started. It’s a big responsibility, I want to do the pupils proud and bring in tangible, positive change. It hit me almost immediately that there’s a lot to live up to, the outgoing team left pretty big shoes to fill, which is a bit scary but we have a great team so I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Daniel: I’m looking forward to next year already. There are so many great ideas we need to get implemented. I suppose my one reservation is about finding the right balance between academics and carrying out this position properly, but I’ll aim to be very organised and the teachers are great at helping us balance things with IB, so I’m not that worried.

Katia: I was very excited, even though it felt like a lot to take on, the pressure is on when people expect you to push things through and come up with good, solid and realistic ideas for change.

Admittedly, you’ve only recently been appointed to your respective positions, but have you managed to think much about what you want to achieve next year as a team?

Emmie: We’ve briefly discussed a few outlines for changes we’d like to make, such as refining the roles of heads of house. We’ll be discussing our goals and aims a bit more formally in the coming weeks but the real work begins in earnest next year!

Daniel: We’re also very focused on continuing the excellent work of the previous heads in terms of the connections they’ve forged with the WenHe migrant school and Heart-to-Heart Foundation. Zoe, Joey and Harvey started to collaborate with both these amazing institutions and when I was involved in their events I thought it was an invaluable opportunity to get Wellington pupils to engage with the world beyond the College and do something very meaningful.We also want to engage more with pupils across the College to find out their thoughts and ideas about improving Wellington.

Katia: It’s important for us to realise and appreciate how privileged we are and to help others. What is also very important is that our activities, events and fundraising efforts for these two charities are pupil-led. We have guidance from our teachers but ultimately we get to decide how to use our time and resources to produce the most benefit for the people we want to engage with.Again, next year we also hope to make pupil leadership positions across the College even more meaningful and encourage the leaders from the Prep and Senior Schools to work together more closely.

The charities seem to be a major focus of your platform for next year. What do you hope to achieve by working with them next year?

Emmie: These are projects that allow us – and many of our peers who very selflessly volunteer – to really get stuck in. We plan our activity sessions with the Wen He children, teach them what we know, play with them and show them new and hopefully exciting things. The same goes for Heart-to-Heart, it’s the kind of project that allows us to build real connections with people and improve their lives in very meaningful ways. So far we’ve raised enough money as a College to pay for two life-saving heart surgeries, it doesn’t get much more meaningful than that! We’re really excited to see what we can do next year as a team and as a community.

Katia: We’ve already been involved in lots of fundraising this year, with a special CCA assigned for that purpose. We also wanted to have some more interactive experiences with Heart-to-Heart rather than just giving money, so it’s been great to get personally involved in terms of going down to the hospital, meeting the children and helping out wherever we could. Next year we’d like to keep this going and find new ways to help.

Daniel: Ultimately, it’s about building long-lasting and more meaningful relationships with the charities we want to work with. Hopefully we can get even more pupils involved as well, in Prep as well as the Senior School.

The charities seem to be a major focus of your platform for next year. What do you hope to achieve by working with them next year?

Daniel: Being responsible, organised and approachable would be my top three! Pupils have lots of great ideas but sometimes they might be hesitant to bring them forward because they’re not sure exactly what to say or how to express themselves. As pupil leaders, we need to be really approachable because that means we will get more people coming forward to say their piece, and we’ll become more representative leaders overall.

Katia: Being a good communicator is really important. We need to be able to work with both our fellow pupils and Wellington staff to put our ideas into practice. We need to be in touch with what the pupils want and then we need to be able to articulate very clearly to our teachers how we want to get things done, and what we need from them in terms of assistance.

Emmie: I think you need to combine being proactive while at the same time being a really good listener. You have to be able to take in great ideas and then make sure that you seize the moment and act on them. Planning is great, but following through is better.

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