Was never a prefect let alone headboy at prep school. Always more of an anti-Establishment presence. The only downside of that stance was that prefects got to wear long trousers in winter. I still treat those goody-two-shoe types with suspicion.
We didn't have them at my vying-for-worst-in-the-town comp in the 80s/90s; we only just had a pretence at a uniform.
My eldest is at the same school now and it's all blazers and prefects and head boy/girl. It's gets marginally less shit results now, being 4th best of 8*.
We (sixth form college) will mention whether a student was HB or HG of their secondary school on their UCAS reference. No idea if it genuinely helps, but it's never hindered them, to the best of my knowledge.
*Pleasingly, it beats the free school which was, until recently, a private school ([url= https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/schools-by-type?step=phase®ion=841&geographic=la&phase=secondary&for=secondary&basedon=Overall+performance&show=All+pupils&datasetFilter=provisional ]source[/url]).
(BD - ring any bells? On the off chance)
No not me, our head boy pretty much fulfilled your description of your overlooked candidate, other than he (together with another friend) chose to give up football to concentrate on Oxbridge entry. This meant I ended up playing in the XV instead.
No head boy/girl at my school, however I did end up as a prefect*
*Everyone who made it to YR11 was a prefect.
It was the sort of school where the prefects had Alsatians, and stopped people at the gate to check if they had a knife.
If you didn't they'd lend you one.
I got made a Prefect, go me, first day they wanted me to stand in an empty corridor to make sure it stayed empty on my lunch break. Missed the first one to play football and got a warning, missed the second one to play football and got my Prefect status revoked. Sure Head Boy/Girl had to walk the empty corridors at lunchtime to check they were manned. What a waste of lunchtimes!
I only made it to Prefect, which was rather less responsibility that being milk monitor in the infants.
We had Prefects and senior prefects. Didn't really do much other than boss about kids in lower years and act as general snitches.
I wasnt well behaved anough to qualify but here was also a black market in prefect badges, so anyone in the higher years could masquerade as one as long as you didnt get seen by a teacher 🙂
prefect badges
My daughter's school tried to get the "More Able and Talented" kids to wear 'MAT' lapel badges, presumably because they couldn't make the thick kids wear badges. The MAT kids are clever enough to realise this would mark you out, so refused to wear them.
My wife was head girl, apparently. I finally have something to do with this information. She remains the sort of person who gets asked to do things. I'm more a 'gets told not to do things' kind of person.
I don't recall any houses, heads, prefects, monitors or any other similar things at my school. It was a fairly small school though and it was rough as **** so that might have something to do with it. If they did have any of those things and some kid got made or volunteered to be one then god help them.
Yep HB of a large W Mids comp. Votes by sixth form then final decision by snr teachers. I think I straddled the non geek / not a doper divide so was vaguely acceptable to both constituencies !
There was none of this badge / jumper nonesense identifying you thankfully. But I did do a bit of public speaking that helped with confidence in later life.
I was elected by my peers (i.e. the rest of the sixth form) to be on of the two student reps on the board of governors *smug*
The other student rep was Beverley Webb who, if I remember correctly, was quite hot.
Yeah I was head boy.
I don't know why they picked me. My school was absolutely terrible so I think I must have been the least worst option.
I think they sold some of the playing fields to garmin to build their hq near Southampton.
Was house captain, which meant I was not the head boy sort
She remains the sort of person who gets asked to do things. I'm more a 'gets told not to do things' kind of person.
😆
I don't remember it being solely the preserve of the nerdy geeks
That's because you were one? 😈
I was dep head and tolerated it only because it meant that I ended up doing things which resulted in the head girl doing exactly that. Which was nice.
I regarded prefects as the sorts who would volunteer for the sonderkommando.
Not a chance of this at my school, or a uniform, or completed homework for today matter...
Was Head Boy and House Captain. Both taken away from me due to the language I used when disagreeing with Mr Stevens the Science Teacher. I forget which science. Also got a week off school ..... read suspension.
I was the schools sport captain at junior school which entailed giving a speech at sports day and nothing else as far as I can recall. My secondary school had a head boy and prefects who basically had the power of the masters (that is what teachers were called in our school ...and yes we had a geography teacher called Master Bates) and could put children in detention. Prefects were second year students at the sixth form part of the school and they had their own uniform and everything. Turned some of them into right sadistic bastards! I moved to a sixth form college so missed it all.
Deputy House Captain of Malthus house.
Did they occasionally stop feeding the kids or organise knife fights between houses to get the numbers down?
Didn't even get made a prefect in mine. Not that I'm bitter.
Prefects were just cheap labour
At my secondary school everyone in year 11 was allowed to be a prefect if they wanted to, every single person in the year was apart from me 😆
I couldn't see the attraction in wearing a stupid badge and basically doing the teachers jobs for them as prefects had to give up some of their breaks to stand in the corridor and tell people off for running etc.
Even had to have an interview with my form tutor to discuss the reasons why I didn't want to be one 😆
Yeh, but you got a badge.
I was chosen for headboy for some unknown reason. Turned it down. Headmaster was not happy as they already had already got carol concert booklets printed with my name in. Very presumptious of him. I couldnt even sing
Yeh, but you got a badge
All the other kids must have been more easily pleased than me with their shiny badges 😆
I used to take great pleasure in asking my mates what they were doing at break time knowing full well they were on prefect duty, then rub it in by going off to the chip shop or youth centre down the road. This was in the mid 90's when you could still just about get away with going offsite as long as the teachers didn't catch you!
We just had mad bastards, never heard of top boy/girl, that no just private school nonsense?
Is this a thing? Pupils need to stay in school grounds during break times? We used to be able to go where we pleased be it home, shops, up the woods or pub. By looks of it around here no one is stopping them these days either.This was in the mid 90's when you could still just about get away with going offsite as long as the teachers didn't catch you!
The top boy in my day was the name given to the best fighter who went up against the nearby proddy schools top boy during the weekly arranged 4v4 or 6v6 fights.We just had mad bastards, never heard of top boy
Edit: Actually I think they were called top man or top guy or similar, 14-15 year olds probably didn't refer to themselves as boys.
Don't know if it's a thing or not, I just assumed all schools were like prisons these days?
Our school gates back then were kept an eye on by the teachers as you weren't meant to go out unless you had parents permission to go home for lunch.
