Introducing captains mid-year has allowed Year 12s to focus on studies, school principal Darren Cook says

The Lockyer High school’s newest school captains have taken the reins and are eager to lead their school for the next 12 months

A school principal says introducing school captains midway through Year 11 has proved to not only benefit student’s leadership skills, but also allow time for crucial study in Year 12.

The Lockyer District State High School captains Helena Thompson and Adam McFarlane were inducted on Tuesday, taking the reins from outgoing captains Chelsea Reinke and Paul Amongol.

Changing to a financial year set-up will allow outgoing captains to mentor the new captains, but also allow this year’s graduating class to focus on their studies in the second half of the year.

It was a decision the school has gradually introduced over the past two years.

Principal Darren Cook said fresh captains were often learning the ropes of leadership at a time critical to helping Year 7 students transition to high school.

“We realised there were two problems, firstly is that you start with no mentors. There’s no one to talk about what to expect,” he said.

“The other is because most of our school captains are ATAR students, finishing midway through the year gives them a run through to the end-of-year external exams.”

Year 12s Chelsea and Paul were inducted in September last year and have run assemblies as well as being the face of the school at public outings.

“I feel the skills we learn while being school captain and the responsibilities we handle will translate into every other aspect we go on to do,” Paul said.

For Helena, the new co-captain for 2021-2022, she said coming through as a house captain had given her an insight into leadership.

“It will be good having a mentor, and I like how the captaincy is run for the financial year,” she said.

“I’m very excited and I think we’ve got a great group.”