covid brings added responsibility for head students

The new head boy and girl of Springwood High School in King’s Lynn said they are looking forward to helping staff play an active role in keeping the school on track during the disruption of the novel coronavirus pandemic after taking up their duties.

Campbell Pick and head girl Neyah Laroiya have been selected by staff for the top posts for the upcoming year.  

Campbell said that in this strangest of years, student leadership had additional, new responsibilities.

“We have to do the usual things like promote messages in the school that the staff want sent out, like keeping the place tidy and setting a good example with our behaviour, but this year there are other things as well,” he said.

“We’ve already been in meetings with senior staff, about what we can do to have more COVID-related regulations in the school,” he explained. “It’s an odd situation, but they want to hear our point of view on what we think is going well, and what can be improved.”

Neyah agreed that they could play a useful role for the whole school. “We’re providing a student perspective for teachers on what they’re doing,” she said. “Our COVID rules are under review, so we’re having input as we represent the student body. We’re trying to help the teachers, as well as the students.”

Even without their new responsibilities, Campbell and Neyah, who are both local to King’s Lynn, are heavily involved in extra-curricular activities at the school, which is part of the West Norfolk Academies Trust group, and this year recorded its highest-ever number of students achieving Norfolk county scholar status.

“I’m passionate about the environment, so I’ve set up an environmental group to encourage people in what they can do to help, I’m in the rugby team and choir and I play in the concert band as well,” said Campbell.  

“I’ve been in several school sports teams, and I was a Maths mentor for younger students for the last two years,” added Neyah.

“Also, I was part of the Springwood team that got to the national finals of the Magistrates’ Mock Trial competition at the Royal Courts of Justice, organised by the Young Citizens charity.”

Just like last year, this academic year is likely to be a bit of a step into the unknown, but Campbell said the school was doing the best job it could in a situation that no-one has experienced before.

“These are strange times to be taking over as head boy in a situation that no-one could have seen coming,” he said. “I think the school has done a really good job – teachers adapted very quickly and have stayed engaged, helping us as much as they can.”

Campbell and Neyah's deputies are Joseph Pink, Craig Ward, Jack Foreman, Jack Harvey, Alex Bryan,  Max Fysh, Anoushka Chandrasekar, Katy Leet, Gabriella Eggleton, Karishhma Sritantha, Isabel King, Alisha Burr, Merissa Lawrence, Fatima Massawi, Claudia Draper, Willow Turner and Alisha Bedeser.

Springwood's former Head Girl Sammy Leet said The responsibility of being head girl, and being involved in school events, was character-forming and built confidence.

“There was always something to take part in, from bake sales (my favourite part was the eating) to big quiz nights,” said Sammy, who is now studying psychology at the University of Warwick.  

“I also helped out with a lot of information evenings. This involvement along with a part-time job, healthy social life and studies definitely helped me nail down time management, allowing me to do everything I wanted and needed with the support and advice from staff to make sure I was getting the balance right.”  

Ex Head Boy Will Coase said Springwood staff had played a vital role in helping him take the first step on the road to his dream career, amid so much uncertainty in his final days at school.

“The way things finished with shutdown was so strange,” said Will, who is at the internationally renowned Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts studying an undergraduate course in songwriting and performance.  

“One minute we were involved in student council discussions about how to make the school safe, and then all of a sudden we found out there would be no exams, and just like that, our lives changed in a couple of hours. Suddenly, the final day of school went from being three months away to two days away. It was very confusing.”