By Tyler Wright
With four new school captains set to take the reins in 2023, Mount Dandenong Primary School’s leadership team was announced on Friday 11 February.
Willow-Rose Gordon, Ethan Corbett, Eva Robertson and Connor Lourey received their badges at the presentation ceremony.
Eva said she screamed when she found out she had been chosen as school captain around three weeks ago.
“It’s always been my dream. When I was a little bit younger and I would see them go up there, I thought ‘that’s going to be me someday,” she said.
When Connor was in prep, his big buddy was school captain and he has always wanted the role.
“They’re the head of the school. They’re the role models. Everyone looks up to them. They have to go up and talk in front of the whole school,” Connor said.
In their last year of primary school, the four grade six students will head assemblies and organise events, which is what they are most looking forward to.
They also hope to inspire younger students to take on leadership roles.
“They might want to be school captain when they’re older; that’s basically encouraging them to follow the dreams,” Connor said.
Kingfishers’ House Captain Lili Denovan applied to be head of her house to help others have an opportunity in sport, and wants to teach younger students that sport is fun and enjoyable.
“Not to be sad if you lose, not to be disappointed when you have to do PE or any sport,” she said.
“It’s great to win, but don’t always have to be crazy about it and make others feel bad about it, just like ‘yeah I won, you did a good job too.”
Arts captains, environmental captains, library captains and Japanese captains were also announced at the ceremony.
Mount Dandenong Primary School Principal Jake Laurie said students need to complete and written application and an interview with himself, a teacher and the previous year’s school captains to be accepted.
“It’s a really fun phone call to make back home to those families and let the kids know and the parents know, and there’s lots of squealing and excitement, but they take it really seriously,” he said.
“We’ve got so many amazing leaders at the school.”
Jake also said the environment captains will run a group that does jobs around the school yard, while the Japanese captains will run a Japanese-themed day and the arts captains will hold an art show later in the year.
“The younger kids really look up to it and aspire and strive to be one of those leaders when they get to grade six,” he said.
“They do so well and they grow so much through the year. ”
Yarra Ranges Mayor Councillor Jim Child, who attended Mount Dandenong Primary School, wished students success in their future studies.
“I started here as my first year of primary school in 1955, and before that, my two brothers to school here as well… it’s a long connection back into into the community up here on the mountain,” he said.
“I can always reminisce about going to primary school, and I think it’s probably the best part of your lives these few years you spend in this great school community.”
