By Grace Frost
Broadford Secondary College have officially inducted their 2023 captaincy team, the four students eager to begin their leadership roles and implement change.
After making speeches in front of the college staff and their cohort, a vote decided Danielle Spratling and Blake Inness as school captains, and Charlotte Gidman and Jake Laury vice captains.
Blake said he undertook the captaincy role ‘as a bit of a challenge’, and hoped to act as a mentor to younger students with a particular focus on sports.
“Getting people that usually wouldn’t have the confidence to [participate in sports] to just have a go is where we can have new groups and connections,” he said.
“[I hope to encourage] students to … not feel pressured by school work, but be able to feel [part of] a community.”
Danielle has stepped into the role after her leadership abilities shone last year while participating in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence campaign.
She made more than 300 ribbons to raise awareness among staff and students, inspiring the college to now plan to participate in the campaign annually.
Danielle is on a mission to promote environmental awareness at the school, already advocating for the implementation of recycling bins.
“I’d like to be more sustainable, a degree of more maturity and awareness from the students. Hopefully at the end of the year I can look back and say that’s been done,” she said.
Charlotte said after holding a leadership role when she was younger, she was ready to ‘step out of her comfort zone’ again for her final year, with hopes to encourage the formation of community among the year levels.
“I’d like to bring the junior school closer to the senior school, especially the year sevens,” she said.
“Seeing the year 12s last year in their captaincy roles, I thought it would be a good challenge to try it again.”
Jake hopes to act as a student voice, also striving to ‘step of his comfort zone’.
“I feel like I’ve always been someone, especially in earlier years, who never spoke up … I thought this is something to get out of my comfort zone, something to help me grow up, to become more mature,” he said.
“We didn’t just step into this role just to fill it, but to do something.”
Throughout the year, the students will run assemblies, speak to students in the morning bulletin, assist with family nights and barbecues, host significant events such as Anzac Day, and ‘act as a student voice’.
School captain coordinator Riley Majerczak said the team were already doing a great job of raising awareness for various initiatives at the school, and would begin planning future events after speaking with and gauging the needs of younger students.
“I think one thing [the captaincy team] are doing really well is bringing awareness to these different charities and different initiatives that kids maybe aren’t aware of,” she said.
