Horsham West Primary School's newest leaders ready for a challenge

On Monday, February 7, the group school captain Ava Conway, along with vice-captains Logan Henskes and Lucy Clark, held their first whole-school assembly of the year and they have big plans for the year ahead.

They were assisted by junior school council captains Chloe Stockdale, Ruby Kelm, Noah Coyne and Matilda Webster.

"This was just really an introductions day, there wasn't much to tell everyone since it was first week back," Conway said.

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The past eighteen months have been challenging for students across the region, and primary schools were no exception.

"It's more challenging, learning from home and directing your own learning. It's also another level of responsibility." Kelm said.

"It was okay, but if you didn't have any internet it could be a bit hard. But there were some good sides to it... you could sleep in, or get food whenever you wanted, lots of kids enjoyed that," Webster said.

School captain Conway told the Mail-Times that she felt learning from home had held her back.

"I feel a lot of my learning time has been slowed and that has prevented a lot of things I could have been achieving," Conway said.

"We can finally be pushed to our limits - with online learning there was a set task, there wasn't very much of an extension of tasks if you found something easy," Clark added.

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"(Learning from home) kids really didn't try their best because their teacher wasn't there to push them to their limits," Henskes concurred.

For these young students, leadership is always something they've felt drawn to.

"I've always enjoyed opportunities to speak in front of crowds and helping push others forward and others' ideas forward, so they can achieve what they want," Conway said.

"When I first heard about the opportunity to be a school captain, I wasn't sure because when you are in that position there's a lot of responsibilities.

"But I'm glad I made the choice because I get to work with a lot of interesting people and have input in the ideas that go around the school. I'm happy I went for it."

Vice-captain Lucy Clark jumped at the chance of a leadership role after admiring previous school captains.

"I've always admired like the people who could stand up there, talk to everyone and have the courage and the guts to do it," Clark added.

Helping people is another big motivating factor for the group.

"It's also a way to give back to the school after all the years they've taught us and helped us grow as people," Clark said.

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