Saint James Primary School Yamba community gathered on Friday morning to elect the school leaders for 2019. 

All children in Year 6 presented themselves to the community, parents, fellow students and staff to outline how they believe they can help St James to “Be the best school it can be in 2019.”

The sixteen speeches of three minutes duration offered a strong student view on where St James should focus its efforts in 2019.

Ideals such as encouragement, fairness, respect and helpfulness featured in all the Year 5 students’ speeches and showed what the children believe is important in leadership in our school, and a focus on welcoming others and trying hard to be a great learner where other qualities which are important to the students. 

Students spoke of their excitement to “Go for captain” and having the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to a “good and better school for all.” 

With everyone in the school voting and all votes being of equal value the result is truly representative of the student voice. 

The school congratulates Imogen Lee and Cooper Olsen on being selected as School Captains.Sports Captains were also elected with Christian Lovell (Pippi House), Mellodee Kempnich (Angourie House) and Cecelia Strain (Turners House) being successful.

Staff commented on how passionately the students spoke and how exciting it is to hear the student voice in this manner. All of the students’ speeches are loaded onto the school website and offer areal glimpse into the thinking of the future leaders of St James whether they wear the captain’s badge or not.