By Adina D’Souza, 9C
On 24th September, the ‘to-be student council prefects’ had their training, where the Pastoral Department gave them words of advice on how they can use some strategies to improve and become the best version of themselves. Alongside, accepting the role of being a prefect.
The program started at 7:30 am. It began with a motivational message from Sr. Victoria Lavente, Head of Pastoral Care,where she gave an overall understanding of the main purpose of being a prefect .
The training then progressed with Ms. Jolit explaining ‘The Nibble Theory’ and ‘Kernel of Power Leadership, Self-empowerment , and Personal Growth (self evaluation)’. The Nibble Theory is a process of dealing with the world that moves the leader toward personal power and growth, arising out of the unique values and strengths of each person. During this time, the prefects learnt how they can be a better ‘bigger circle’ (better leaders) and how they can include and empower the ‘smaller circles’(empowering the followers); at the same time they also discussed their views on what was being explained to them and how they can use criticism as a way to improve themselves.
Towards the end of the activity, Ms. Jolit Malaya, SEND Coordinator, gave every prefect a sticky note and asked them to draw and explain which slide out of all the theories stood out the most, as she then proceeded to collect them all, to read and reflect on what the prefects thought about what they had just learnt and had a greater impact.
Right after this activity and short break, the training continued with the discussion of the “The Biggest Circle They Can Be”. During this time, Ms. Maf Cimafranca, Learning Support Teacher, split the prefects into 4 different groups, so that they would learn to cooperate with each other and get to know each other better, while being out of their comfort zone.
While Ms. Maf was explaining the different values and responsibilities that comes with being a prefect, she gave the prefects al task to come together and discuss, the qualities of a good and a bad leader. As the prefects merged into two main groups, they consolidated their views and ideas. Once the two groups were done, reporters for each group come up and explain their outputs.
Once the sharing of views was completed and Ms. Maf had given her final words of encouragement. Ms. Mari Ella Villosillo, Vice Principal for Secondary Department, challenged the prefects with a question, “Are you a popcorn? Ping pong ball? Or a star?” Right after the prefects made their choices, Ms. Ella explained in detail as to what each meant description meant. “The ‘popcorn’ stands for a team that doesn’t know how to cooperate, the ‘ping pong ball’ stands for a team that is split into different sides and does not know how to cooperate as a whole, and lastly “the star” stands for a team that works together as a whole. Ms. Ella wished and desired that the prefects of 2019 – 2020 are STARS.