Each year in the Junior School we select our prefect team who are led by the Head Boy and Girl and the Deputy Head boy and Girl. After much careful consideration from staff throughout the school we were very pleased to award the role Head Boy to Indiana Worth, Head Girl to Ella Hodgson, Deputy Head Boy to Oscar Amankwah and Deputy Head Girl to Phoebe Blatchford Cooper.

They will be carrying out a wide range of responsibilities throughout the year including assisting in assemblies, showing visitors around the school and attending many events over the course of the year.

They have done a fantastic job in the first term and I am extremely proud of all the hard work they have put into their roles. In my first year as Head of Junior School I am very lucky to have such a strong Head Pupils team to help me out.

Indiana and Ella have written a short piece about their initial experiences of being Head Girl and Boy.

We are very proud to be Head Boy and Head Girl for 2018-2019. It is a great responsibility. We are looking forward to showing prospective families around the school and doing speeches. We look forward to helping as much as we can from inspiring people to knocking on the staffroom door at the end of break time.

We look forward to helping others when they need it the most. Our last event was reading prayers at the Harvest Festival. We are excited to help look after new pupils and all the events to come. The teachers also rely on us to do other general things to help out with around the school including setting up the hall for assemblies and holding open the door and welcoming people to our events.

Following a very stringent application process at the end of last year, Mr Matthews and I were delighted to appoint the Senior School Head Pupil Team in September for the 2018/19 academic year.  They have now had almost a term in post and, I am pleased to report that all is going very well.

Our Head Girl, Lucy Dickson has, since her arrival at St Joseph’s, been an exemplary student. Lucy’s counterpart for the boys is Joe Allen, a young man who has addressed the role of Head Boy with a determination he formerly exhibited in his Ten Tors training. Their deputies are Morwenna Parkhouse and Alec Macdonald for the girls and boys respectively; both students ably complement the Head Girl and Head Boy, bringing with them much in the form of organisational and personal skills.

Supporting the head pupils we have six prefects, each with a particular area of responsibility: Millie Turner and Liberty Scott for charity; Livi Bolton and Nico Gruzdev for junior/senior liaison and Shani Harbour and Torin Lipscombe for media.

Already this term the charity prefects have helped to organise and run fundraising events for Children in Need, the Cornwall Air Ambulance and The Royal British Legion; Livi and Nico have been involved with open evenings and transition days for years 5 and 6 and transition days and Shani and Torin have been canvassing material to help run some of the social media feeds we have here in school.

Of course, as well as these specific duties, the life of a prefect is never a quiet one. They are all excellent ambassadors for St Joseph’s on a daily basis; they lead the way for younger pupils by being positive role-models: each mentors a year group and they carry out duties, such as supporting prep, to assist staff and develop their leadership qualities. Joe, Alec, Morwenna and Lucy represented the school at Launceston’s town Remembrance Day commemoration, and amongst their additional duties they will be reading in the Service of Lessons and Carols that brings the Christmas term to a suitably festive conclusion.

Well done to all of those selected for these positions of responsibility. They for a key part of St Joseph’s life, and serve as role models for pupils throughout the school.