FROM THE CAPTAINS

Rewarding experiences

Megan Ho

Captain, Haileybury Rendall School

To me, being a leader at Haileybury Rendall School means having an opportunity to work with my peers across a wide range of rewarding areas. This includes creating opportunities and an environment for students, teachers, and the wider school community to feel included and welcomed. We have implemented this throughout Semester 1 through events such as lunchtime sports, a debating competition, Reconciliation Week and many more.

Recently, we participated in NAIDOC Week, a week of events that I took a lot of pride in. These kind of events are an important opportunity for individuals to broaden their knowledge on the Indigenous culture here in Australia. The event consisted of different activities such as an assembly, yarning and art, sport, a ‘bush tucker’ lunch, fashion parade and traditional music. It also featured a Heal Country Walk, where students could walk or run around the oval during lunchtime and write down commitments to Heal Country.

Although the time is flying this year, I look forward to continuing to hold activities that benefit our School community, collaborating with my fellow leadership team on exciting events, and to end my final year with a memorable Semester 2.

Elijah Martins

Captain, Haileybury Rendall School

As cliché as it may sound, I believe— with my consecutive seven years of experience—leadership is about servitude, leading by example, teamwork and enacting plausible yet innovative ideas and events. Being a leader within Haileybury Rendall School has heavily emphasised these traits—especially as it’s still a relatively new school guided by the experience of Haileybury, yet, slightly rooted in the previous school.

One thing I've learned over the years, is that adaptability, planning, and teamwork are fundamentals in being able to sustain old events and create new lasting traditions. From the very start of the year, Megan, the rest of the leadership team and I, have strived to build School spirit, implement a variety of events, and close the divide between day students and boarders.

Some highlights of Semester 1 are having at least one sporting tournament, music/ art competition, social justice/charitable event and one major competition each term. With the tremendous help of Mr McGregor, we were also able to establish connections with another major school to start having friendly interschool competitions. We have also started practising for the first annual House Singing Competition and nearly finished preparations for renewing a House Activities Day.

I'm very thankful for having such a motivated leadership team where everyone is on the same wavelength and helps each other unconditionally. It's easy to forget specific roles as everyone works tirelessly for every event to make sure it's a success. On that note, I'm also very thankful to Megan—our other School Captain—as we support each other through navigating these exciting challenges.