4 minute read
What's in a year?
At the start of the year, when plans were fresh and hopes were high, the Communications team met with the 2020 College Captains. Their year was a blank canvas – they spoke of aspirations and much-anticipated Senior moments…little did they know the year had other plans.
KELSEY BRICKNELL
communications officer Ben, Julia, Zac and Alara were elected to lead St Peters after Leadership Camp in January. The group wasted no time in banding together to plan their Senior year.
“We want to build on the history of school spirit at St Peters,” Ben told us at the time. “And show one another support because of how proud we are of the College.”
Their aim was to encourage all Year Levels to ‘turn up’, both physically (attending events and sport fixtures to support their peers) and in attitude (wearing the College uniform with pride).
“We want everyone to feel that their talents are supported,” Alara explained. “Everyone at this school has their own individual talents and they have the right to be acknowledged.”
The plan was to lead by example—to be in the centre of group war cries at AIC and QGSSSA Championships; to encourage their cohort to join them at Music’s Performer of the Year and Art’s VAPAr; and to unite the community by initiating lunch-time activities that promoted mixing beyond the Year Levels. Add to that the wish to have every Year 12 student able to leave the College with ‘no regrets’, and you’ve got one very busy, yet rewarding Senior year. When the pandemic hit, however, that year began to crumble away.
“We had no idea what was happening – what we’d still be able to do – the future was so uncertain,” Julia shared with us recently.
With Ben (a boarder) back in Canberra and the others unable to see each other due to lockdown restrictions, the Captains moved to Zoom. The group were faced with a challenging task.
“We had to say to our [Year Level], ‘This is your Year 12 year…this is what we can and can’t do with it.’,” Zac told us. “Having to do that was pretty tough.” Nevertheless, the group pulled through. They drew on the leadership traits they’d identified as important at the start of the year and developed a range of new ones they hadn’t anticipated needing. “Communication,” Ben said, “was obviously one thing that got us through, but also the ability to give [our] best [in every] situation regardless of what it [was].”
“It [was] also important to understand that [our] 100% could look different to someone else’s,” Alara added. “Everyone is
Pictured: (clockwise from opposite page) Newly 'crowned' Captains looking relaxed at the start of 2020; Last day of classes costumes and antics; Years 7/12 lunch- time Touch game; Prefects SPYGT launch; AIC Swimming cheer squad; Alara 'At Home Learning'.
Zac Robinson, Vice-School Captain in different situations, so just because you may appear to be giving more than someone else, maybe they can’t give anymore. What they’re giving is equally as important.”
With those key traits in mind, the team quickly set about making the best out of a testing situation. They acknowledged their differences, but used those to their advantage. “We’re all very different in a lot of ways,” Alara told us. “Even in terms of where we aim to be and what we want to do careerwise. But it’s worked really well.”
When asked if they knew about their complementary strengths from the get-go, or if it evolved throughout the year, Ben told us it was a mixture.
“Some we knew straight away and others we found out gradually, or even while we were on Zoom. Like, we’d go, ‘Wow, Julia’s such a good listener, she organised all this stuff,’ or, you know, ‘Alara managed to not make that Zoom call awkward’…which is a talent in itself!” Together, the team organised SPYGT—one that will go down as the first livestreamed talent show in the College’s history; they continued to inspire College pride, albeit via socially distanced methods; and, when restrictions eased a little and school returned to almost-normal, they carried out their plan of promoting inter-Year Level mixing by establishing Senior-run lunchtime clubs in the Primary Years and taking a group of Year 11 and 12s to the Harts Road oval every Wednesday to play Touch with the Year 7s.
Along the way, the Captains realised that it was impossible to please everyone at all times. “Listening to feedback, but not listening to negativity is definitely something we’ve improved on this year,” Zac said, not that they received much.
Reports from all over the College could not be more glowing of how well the 2020 Captains have done. It’s heartening to know that they’ve been able to acknowledge that themselves.
“We’ve done our best to adjust our goals and to adapt to the different circumstances,” Julia told us. “I’m very proud of what we’ve managed to achieve, with [the year] we’ve been given and the fact that we kept going.”
