Leadership
The role of student Leadership at Bishops has a long history. John Gardener in his Bishops 150 history refers to the influence of Thomas Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby School in the 1830s, when Robert Gray was a young man. “The role of prefects became the setting of the tone of the school, being loyal lieutenants of the Head, endowed with considerable powers and privileges, and putting down the lawless tyranny of physical strength. That at any rate was the ideal. It did not always work, and it followed that the greatest battles were between the prefects faithful to that ideal and the other prefects and the seniors who were not.” That, with modifications and frequent debates, remained much the same in essence through till the 1990s.
In 1999, the leadership model was still very much centred on the Prefects. There was a Senior Prefect as head of school, and two Deputies, one of which had to be a boarder. Each House had a Head boy – called a School Prefect – and, depending on the numbers in the House, several House Prefects. These appointments were decided on by a meeting of the Housemasters’ Committee, who listened to each Housemaster present his nominees, and then would decide on who was to be appointed. The Principal invariably had a veto right. The Prefects would be allocated specific duties in their houses over and above a general brief to maintain discipline and behaviour. The annual announcement of who had been appointed frequently caused disappointment to those who had not been selected and sometimes drove a split in the house matric group.
In 1999, following an approach by David Coates, a Students Representative Forum was set up. Clive Watson had initially opposed the idea, but Council members urged him to agree to its formation. Coates worked with Mark Abrahamson (Deputy Headboy) to develop a structure and compile a Constitution. “The core principle we were to work towards was to ensure the SRF and the Prefect Body didn’t have overlapping responsibilities and they were to work in a complimentary way to enhance student life. We wanted to ensure that every year felt empowered to speak up and their voice was heard.” (Correspondence between David Coates and Nikolaos Augoustatos, Chair of the 2023 SRF, Dec 2023). The Forum comprised three representatives from each House, a junior, a middle and a senior boy.
Other avenues to display and develop leadership existed – in class representatives, sports teams, in societies, and in Interact and Christian Union.
Following the developments around the pastoral arrangements flowing from the 2010 Conference, the Housemasters were persuaded that there needed to be a significant shift in the structures of student leadership. Grant Nupen addressed this in his Prizegiving Address at the end of 2007.
“After much investigation into the qualities and challenges of leadership, our conclusion is that as a school, we must firstly give recognition to the fact that all boys are and will be leaders, secondly that all boys must be given the opportunity to lead and thirdly that the teaching of leadership must be part of the curriculum from Grade 8 through to Grade 12. We have done much work on this and in order to ensure that all boys are given the opportunity to lead, we are going to allow the system to evolve further next year by allocating all boys in matric to occupy positions of leadership by portfolios in their houses and school. The leadership structure at the top of the school will stay the same and we will continue to have a Head of School, two Deputy Heads of School, Heads of House and, next year, Deputy Heads of House, and thereafter all boys in Grade 12 will be given the opportunities of being responsible for a portfolio and to lead this portfolio in their houses and in the school, for the year. This system will be backed up by a full system of performance management and ultimately a reward system of colours and half colours for leadership.”
A new badge was drawn up by a volunteer group of boys with help from the SA College of Heralds, and while there was some resistance to the ending of the old prefects’ badge, the new system and its visible signs were quickly accepted and became settled. The badge’s design reflected the dual nature the envisaged leadership model – the sword symbolizing authority, and the shepherd’s crook the pastoral role.
In September 2008, a Grade 11 Leadership Conference was held for all Grade 11s. (Previously, only the nominated Prefects went on a training camp.) There was an Appreciative Inquiry process to start the discussions and it appeared that there was a good deal of knowledge about leadership and what made a good leader. A number of external speakers talked of vision and planning; teamwork and co-operation; about personality types, and mental toughness. Mark Hanley gave a presentation about Sir Ernest Shackleton. There was a presentation on ‘making Bishops safe’.
The new leadership system was launched at the start of 2009, and so all Grade 12s had the opportunity to exercise and learn about leadership, management, teamwork and their own strengths and weaknesses. Apart from the Head of School and the heads of houses, each matric was given a portfolio with covered some aspect of life in the school – academic, cultural, sporting, pastoral, spiritual, outreach and administrative. During the year, there were two appraisal sessions, involving tutees, staff portfolio leaders, Assistant Housemasters and Housemasters. After the second round of appraisals, awards were made – either at Standard, Merit or Distinction level. What was most revealing was that there were boys who would not have been considered at all for prefectship, who showed up well in this arrangement and were awarded Colours.
At the end of 2009, another Leadership Conference was held, and Tom Dawson-Squibb, ex-Headboy of Rondebosch Boys’ High raised three topics: the need to adapt in an ever-changing world, viewing the world from different perspectives to one’s own, and the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership. These Grade 11 Leadership Conferences are now a regular component of preparing the matrics to function effective in the leadership roles assigned to them.
Over the years the structure has remained much the same, but it is also true that there are usually too many matrics for each one to have a valid or substantial enough portfolio to make a significant contribution. Occasionally, staff take too much of a role despite the intention of the system being to allow the boys to take the lead. And it is probably also true that some, boys do not take this opportunity seriously enough.
2017 was a sad and difficult year in that the appointed Head of School, Christian Rohrer, developed cancer, and was often not well enough to function as Head. But the system functioned well as the two Deputy Heads stepped into the gap and provided the leadership that was needed.
At the Prep school, a new leadership approach was set up in 2005 in which all Grade 7s were given badges of office and portfolio tasks, and opportunities to serve their fellows. In 2017, the position of Head Boy was done away with, and Heads of Houses were appointed in February of each new year.
